The man arrested in connection to the suspected explosive packages has been identified as Cesar Sayoc.
56-year-old Sayoc, of Aventura, Florida, was taken into custody outside a business in Plantation, Florida.
Court records show Sayoc has a history of arrests for theft, illegal possession of steroids and a 2002 charge of making a bomb threat.
Sayoc allegedly threatened to blow up a Florida utility company and said it would be “worse than September 11th,” according to a 2002 police report from Miami Police Department obtained by CNN.
In 1999, Sayoc was arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff Office in North Carolina.
He is not previously known to the Secret Service, multiple law enforcement sources said.
Authorities found his DNA on at least one of the packages. Investigators then used his cell phone to track him.
Law enforcement officers were seen on television examining a white van, its windows covered with an assortment of stickers, outside the Plantation auto parts store. Authorities covered the vehicle with a blue tarp and took it away on the back of a flatbed truck.
The van had several propaganda stickers on the windows.
A closeup shows pictures of republican leaders like President Trump.
Below those pictures are strikers of democratic leaders like Hillary Clinton. Some with targets on their faces.
Three suspicious packages addressed to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and Senator Kamala Harris were intercepted Friday.
The discoveries brought to 13 the total number of devices addressed in recent days to Democratic figures including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.
Trump, after Sayoc was apprehended, declared that “we must never allow political violence take root in America” and Americans “must unify.” As in comments earlier in the week, he did not mention that the package recipients were all Democrats or officials in Obama’s administration, in addition to CNN, a news network he criticizes almost daily.
Earlier Friday, he complained that “this ‘bomb’ stuff” was taking attention away from the upcoming election and said critics were wrongly blaming him and his heated rhetoric.
Check back for updates
- 25 THINGS THAT ARE MORE LIKELY THAN WINNING $1.6B MEGA MILLIONS
- MAN REFUSES TO SIT NEXT TO BLACK WOMAN, GOES ON RACIST TIRADE
- NEWLY DISCOVERED FAULTS COULD TRIGGER 7.2-QUAKE IN OREGON
- CASH HANDOUT OF $1K A MONTH WOULD GROW ECONOMY BY $2.5 TRILLION
- SAN FRANCISCO HIT-AND-RUN CAUGHT ON SURVEILLANCE VIDEO
