Protester charged with trying to buy radioactive substance
Town of Madison resident Jeremy Ryan has found some interesting ways to stay in the news.
The frequent Capitol protester became known as “Segway Jeremy” for riding the device during his protests at the Capitol in 2011.
He posted a video of himself smoking marijuana from a bong as part of his failed run for the GOP nomination in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District this year.
But now the attention is a lot more serious. The FBI says Ryan, 30, went on the dark web to buy a radioactive substance he said he wanted to use to kill someone and make it look like the death was from cancer.
The strange details of Ryan’s online shopping are contained in a federal criminal complaint charging him with attempted possession of radioactive material with intent to cause death or serious bodily harm.
In a sworn affidavit, FBI Special Agent Scott Mahloch of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Milwaukee describes how an undercover FBI agent posing as a merchant on the dark web — websites that can’t be accessed without special software — was contacted about the possible purchase of an unnamed radioactive substance in March by someone with the username “tigolebitties.”
The potential customer had questions about how much you get for what price and whether its half-life would allow it to remain effective after shipping to the U.S.
Ryan said he wanted something that would kill fairly quickly after ingestion and rare enough that if the cause of death was revealed, people would assume only someone in government would have access to the poison.
Months went by before Ryan recontacted the undercover agent, purchased the material with bitcoin for about $500 and asked that it be shipped to him in Madison at a UPS Store mailbox.
The agent gave Ryan a fake tracking number and Ryan showed up and retrieved the package on Wednesday. He was arrested later in Black Earth.
The U.S. attorney’s office in the Western District of Wisconsin is planning to prosecute the case. If found guilty, Ryan could face life in prison.