Search of 'Bomb Factory' House in California Halted

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Nov. 26) -- After finding a record cache of homemade explosives, San Diego County authorities have announced they are halting their search of the densely packed home, saying it is too dangerous to continue.

Local and federal agents have discovered blasting caps and pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a powerful plastic explosive known as PETN, along with a huge supply of weapons-making materials at the home of an Escondido man who is in jail on bomb-making charges, the Los Angeles Times reported.

PETN was the explosive used by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid and by terrorists worldwide, officials said.

The house -- rented by George Djura Jakubec, a computer software consultant now being held on $5 million bail -- has been described by authorities as a bomb-making factory. Officials say it holds the largest cache of homemade explosives ever discovered in one place in the U.S., CNN reported.

The second substance was identified as hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, or HMTD, which is extremely volatile.

Jakubec, a Serbian national, is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He is also charged with two bank robberies, but authorities have not released further information on those incidents. Investigators are searching his computer trying to find his intentions for the bomb-making materials.

Because the home is chock-full of chemicals, blasting caps, homemade grenades and just plain junk, explosive experts said Wednesday they could not continue removing the dangerous materials until they devise a comprehensively detailed plan, the county sheriff's department said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.

No further actions are expected until next week.

"We found a very complex environment inside," Assistant Sheriff Ed Prendergast said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Every imaginable space, whether it was a countertop or table, had junk on it. Just piles and piles of junk."

Authorities have been investigating the house since Nov. 18, when Jakubec was arrested after a gardener working in his yard was seriously injured after stepping in explosive powder.

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/after-finding-bomb-making-factory-investigators-halt-house-search-in-escondido-california/19734343?icid=maing|main5|1|link2|28077

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... a gardener working in his yard was seriously injured after stepping in explosive powder.

Now that's funny.

[Pooky 3,784]

Now that's funny.

Not for the gardener