Bronx twins held on bomb charges; closet stash found

27-year-olds had stored 32 pounds of explosive materials.

A former NEW YORK — teacher at a charter high school and his twin brother were arrested Thursday on federal bomb-making charges, stockpiling more than 32 pounds of ingredients for explosives in a closet in their apartment in the Bronx, law enforcement officials said.

The teacher paid high school students $50 an hour to break apart fireworks to extract the explosive powder, authorities said.

Investigators also found diary writings referring to an “Operation Flash” and a purple index card that read, “Under the full moon the small ones will know terror,” according to officials and a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The teacher, Christian Toro, and his brother, Tyler Toro, both 27, appeared in federal court in Manhattan Thursday afternoon and were ordered held in custody.

Law enforcement officials “likely saved many, many lives,” in making the arrests, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at an 8 p.m. news conference at police headquarters. Officials at the news conference, however, did not provide any details about a possible motive, a target or any plans to explode a device.

De Blasio said investigators believed there were no other people involved, adding, “There is no additional, imminent threat directed at New York City at this time.”

The investigation that ultimately led to the Toro brothers began Dec. 4, when a bomb threat was called into the Harlem charter school where Christian Toro worked, according to the complaint and John Miller, the deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, who spoke at the news conference with de Blasio.

A 15-year-old student was arrested and charged with making the threatening call.

A spokesman for the school, Democracy Prep High School, said Christian Toro resigned Jan. 9. Three days later, his brother returned to the school a laptop computer that the school had given Christian Toro, Miller said.

“After he resigned, Democracy Prep did a routine review of his laptop and was deeply disturbed by suspicious content,” said Jeffrey Schneider, a spokesman for Democracy Prep.

A technician at the charter school examined Christian Toro’s laptop, and found on its hard drive a copy of a book that contained instructions for making explosives, the complaint said. The school alerted law enforcement.

On Thursday morning, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at the brothers’ apartment, where they lived with a female relative.

The complaint said that the agents found bomb-making materials in a closet, including a box containing about 20 pounds of iron oxide, 5 pounds of aluminum powder, 5 pounds of potassium nitrate, all materials that can be used to build explosives. They also found firecrackers and other explosive materials and a bag of metal balls that could have been used as shrapnel in a bomb.