Feds eye online buying of bomb components
Rahami alleged to have shopped on eBay; wife in U.S.
The increasingly common practice of purchasing materials used in homemade explosives online is under renewed scrutiny by federal authorities after last weekend’s bombing campaign in New York and New Jersey, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Thursday.
“We’ll be reviewing ways in which suspects are gaining access to bomb components by way of the Internet,” Lynch said.
Earlier this week, federal prosecutors alleged the lone suspect in the bombings, Ahmad Rahami, shopped on eBay beginning in June and as recently as August for igniters, ball bearings and circuit boards used in the assembly of devices planted at four separate locations, including Manhattan where 31 people were injured when a pressure-cooker device detonated Saturday evening.
eBay has said the company is cooperating in the ongoing federal investigation, yet acknowledged a central concern of law enforcement: “The types of items bought by the suspect are legal to buy and sell in the United States and are widely available at online and offline stores,” the company said in a statement.
Spokesman Ryan Moore said the company has “internal processes in place to detect and report suspicious activity to authorities, including risk-based reporting and filters tied to buying and selling activity, items that may be associated with criminal activity and various other identifiers.”
“We routinely meet with various federal and local law enforcement entities to refine these processes, while also working collaboratively with them in investigations,” he said.
In the Rahami case, according federal court documents, the suspect made no apparent effort to disguise his identity — using his name as the registered user on the website — or a New Jersey address linked to him.
Meanwhile, Lynch said federal investigators in the bomb inquiry continue to examine Rahami’s travels abroad, including extended visits in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he was born in 1988. He arrived in the U.S. in 1995. Authorities also have been questioning Rahami’s wife, Asia Bibi Rahami, who returned to the U.S., late Wednesday after spending more than two months abroad, a federal law enforcement official said.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, said the suspect’s wife has been cooperative and there is no immediate indication she knew of her husband’s alleged plan. Authorities believe she may be able to provide details about her husband’s travels abroad.