Florida man accused in plot to bomb Target stores

— A Florida man is accused in a plot to blow up several Target stores along the East Coast in an attempt to acquire cheap stock if the company’s stock value plunged after the explosions.

Mark Charles Barnett, 48, was charged in a criminal complaint with possession of a firearm affecting commerce by a previously convicted felon, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office in Florida’s middle district. Mr. Barnett, a registered sex offender in Florida, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Officials arrested Mr. Barnett on Tuesday in Ocala. He was taken to the Marion County Jail, where he’s still being held. Records don’t say whether he’s hired a lawyer.

According to an affidavit, Mr. Barnett offered to pay another man — a confidential source, also on probation, whose identity is not revealed and who at one point wore a recording device during a conversation with the suspect — $10,000 to place at least 10 “improvised explosive bombs” disguised in food packaging on store shelves from New York to Florida.

The criminal complaint said Mr. Barnett delivered the items to the other man Feb. 9. He also provided a bag of gloves, a mask and a license plate cover.

But the other man went to authorities. He handed over 10 food boxes that contained black powder bombs, according to the Ocala Star-Banner.

Special Agent Dewane L. Krueger of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said he and other ATF agents were told last month that Mr. Barnett wanted to recruit someone to deliver packages to stores in Florida, Virginia and New York.

The complaint said an explosives expert determined the bombs were capable of causing property damage, serious injury or death to anyone who was near the item if it exploded. Federal agents searched Mr. Barnett’s house in Ocala and found components consistent with those used to create the explosive devices.