HOUSTON, Texas – Federal agents with the FBI arrested a Houston man on charges that he attempted to transport explosives for the purpose of injury or destruction of property.
Cary Lee Ogborn, age 50, contacted an online company to purchase explosives and remote detonation equipment with the intent of blowing up a truck and a residence, according to a federal criminal complaint obtained by Breitbart Texas. It turned out that the online store was actually an undercover federal agent. The Ogburn used the DarkNet to facilitate the transaction and Bitcoin to pay for the materials.
Cary Lee Ogborn, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Mugshot
Ogburn contacted the online business known as AlphaBay using a screen name of “boatmanstv” and inquired about purchasing explosive materials, wireless transmitters, dynamite and fragmentation grenades, the FBI agent stated in the criminal complaint obtained by Breitbart Texas. As the online conversation happened over what the defendant believed to be a secure and untraceable network, he was frank in his words about what he wanted to do.
“[L]ooking for wireless transmitter with detonator. Everything I need to set of a 5 gallon can of gas from a good distance away,” boatmanstv said in one of his messages. The conversation began on August 21, 2016. He explained that he wanted to blow up a small structure that was used as an apartment.
Going to ignite gas because it is the cheapest way I know. If you know cheaper, please inform. Dont [sic] need big explosion, just need to make sure building 20 ft x 40 ft made of wood burns to the ground I dont [sic] have a problem with being close buy. [sic] Just cant [sic] use fuse because it will be at night and fuse burning can be seen at night. The explosive will be placed under the center of the building because it is up on blocks. The city and state that it will be going to is Houston Texas. I just received 300 FT of fuse. Ordered that before I found out it was going to have to be done at night.
Ogburn later explained that he needed a remote detonator because the fuse could be seen at night. Following a lengthy conversation about different options, boatmanstv wrote the following to give the seller a better idea of what he needed:
The idea we have for this person is, while he sleeping we put grenade in back of truck and run to our car 20 to 30 meters away, then the truck blow up, he hexes truck blow up and come outside while he outside we blow up house. Tell me about grenade please. how far do we need to be away?
Ogborn agree to a final price of $600.00 USD to be paid via Bitcoin. The AlphaBay contact told him they had a contact in the postal service that could get the item delivered with no complications. He sent photos of the materials with instructions on how to safely carry out the attack.
Here pictures for that. It very simple you know. We package everything inside toy. you unscrew toy to find everything inside ;)
[W]e make it easy to initiate like we say. all wire connected you just add 2 battery inside car alarm and put detonator inside hole in dynamite. when ready to detonate it just you push car alarm button from key it initiate. it very important to be very good distance device very dangerous when armed you understand. there no coming back from that.
The items were ordered and shipped to a U.S. Post Office box in Houston. When Ogborn arrived at the Post Office he was allowed to pick up the package and transport it to a his residence on Mayfair Street in Houston. He opened the package and handled the materials for about 30-40 minutes before he was arrested by agents.
The complaint, attached below, details information about how the agency tracked down Ogburn and his physical address.
One Facebook user posted:
If convicted of the charges, Ogborn could face up to 10 years in a federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
Cary Lee Ogborn – Criminal Complaint