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Matt Zapotosky
National Security Journalist Covering the Department of Justice
Next to the pro-Trump stickers stuck on the white van, the authorities say belong to Cesar Sayoc are the names and photos of dozens of prominent Democrats and media personalities – the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former first lady Michelle Obama, former Attorney General Eric Holder and Loretta E. Lynch and filmmaker Michael Moore. There is also a sticker saying: "CNN Sucks".
Authorities arrested Sayoc on Friday and identified him as a suspect in widespread panic that included at least a dozen suspicious packages sent to political and media personalities, many of whom are pictured in the van. Sayoc has been charged with five federal crimes, including the transportation of explosives and threats against former presidents. He faces up to 58 years in prison if he is convicted, according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Sayoc, a 56-year-old registered Republican, lives in Aventura, Florida, near the site where many parcels have been sent, authorities said. In a criminal complaint, the authorities said they took one of his fingerprints on the device sent to Maxine Waters and matched a sample of DNA to Sayoc's two devices. He was placed in custody near the white van.
[Analysis: The mail-bomb suspect’s van, annotated]
Sayoc, who was previously known to law enforcement officials, was arrested nearly a dozen times in Florida, including in 2002 for launching a bomb threat. His criminal record in the country extends until the early 1990s. He was arrested for theft at the age of 29, according to state records. Other charges of theft, robbery and fraud would soon follow in the south of the state.
Cesar Sayoc appears on an undated booking photo in Miami. (Broward County Sheriff's Office)
In the 2002 bomb threat case, Sayoc pleaded guilty to the crime without trial and was sentenced to probation, according to the records.
According to the reservation records of the Miami-Dade County Jail, Sayoc called Florida Power and Light and threatened to blow up the local electricity service. Sayoc said "it would be worse than September 11" and also threatened that something would happen to the FPL representative he was talking to if the utility was cutting electricity.
Debra Gureghian, General Manager of New River Pizza and Fresh Kitchen in Fort Lauderdale, said Sayoc worked as a delivery truck driver for several months before resigning in January.
"He was crazy, that's the best word for him," she said. "He really had something with him."
The white van that he drove to deliver pizzas was covered with disturbing images, she explained. The restaurant asked him to park it on the side where he could not be seen.
"They were puppets with their heads cut, models with their heads cut, Ku Klux Klan, a black person hanging, anti-gay symbols, torches, bombings, it was on his truck," said Gureghian.
He was chosen because he was working reliably and it was difficult to find good drivers, she said. But he disturbed his colleagues with comments and racist texts.
"He was very angry and angry with the world, blacks, Jews, homosexuals," she said. "He always talked about" if I had complete autonomy, none of those gays or blacks would survive. "He never said that he would kill them, murder them or bomb them, but that he would not survive." He was very, very strange. "
A lawsuit in which Sayoc was filed said that he had been in the strip club industry for 35 years, including at a club called Stir Crazy. In this same statement, Sayoc asserted that he was also a professional wrestler, a Chippendales dancer, a professional footballer in Milan and a football player in the arena of Arizona. According to the police, he has brown eyes and brown hair, and has a scar on his left shoulder.
Sayoc's relatives could not be contacted immediately for a comment on Friday. A lawyer who previously represented Sayoc refused through his law firm to express Friday by stating, "We know why you are calling and we have no comments."
Daniel Aaronson, a lawyer who has represented Sayoc over the years, said that none of his clients were "as polite, courteous and respectful to me" as Sayoc. He said that Sayoc had never discussed his political views; If he did, it might have sparked a fight.
"In fact, I'm a democrat," Aaronson told the Washington Post. "I am very proud of some of the people targeted. . . therefore, if he had said anything in that sense, I would certainly have noticed, because we would have had a political debate.
In one case, Aaronson said, Sayoc had been charged with robbery for wearing a suit in a department store. In another document, Sayoc was charged with stealing after crossing the order line of a store and leaving with an item in his shopping cart that he had not presented to the cashier.
Aaronson said that Sayoc had never talked about explosives and that the only allegation of violence had come from the theft of a department store.
"When he was arrested, they accused him of battery on the store's detective; but frankly, if I remember correctly, it was addressed, "said Aaronson.
The social media profiles that apparently belonged to Sayoc were full of conspiracy theories and antipathy toward the liberals. A Twitter account on his behalf mentioned George Soros 34 times, Barack Obama 29 times and Hillary Clinton 21 times. The spelling mistakes on the account corresponded to those of the packages, the authorities said.
A tweet presents a picture of Holder, one of the people to whom a pipe bomb was addressed. "This man was murdered for political reasons and got out of it," the tweet said.
Another states that David Hogg, a Parkland survivor, was a paid protester supported by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who received a homemade bomb in his mailbox on Monday.
A video clip posted on the Twitter account presents a photo of Sayoc attending what appears to be a rally of Trump. A "Make America Great Again" sign is behind him, and the crowd sings the name of the president.
"Happy birthday (the) greatest president of all time, Trump Trump Trump," reads in the tweet.
A Facebook page supposed to be Sayoc's, which was deactivated shortly after his arrest, was full of pro-Trump anti-liberal memes.
Sayoc attended Brevard College where he appeared on the list of members of the football team, according to a North Carolina school directory. He was also listed as a member of the Canterbury Club, a religious organization. A picture of the directory showed him posing behind a man in a bishop's dress.
His arrest on Friday came after the authorities found a dozen parcels in several states, all addressed to prominent Democrats, Trump critics and the CNN news network.
None of the guns blew up and no one was injured, but the incidents put the officials in a state of alarm while they worried about the number of people. additional devices likely to be available.
After the announcement of Sayoc's arrest, FBI agents and other police officers were seen draping a blue tarp over a van in a parking lot in South Florida. before loading it in a truck and driving it.
President Trump, who appears on many pictures of the Sayoc van, paid tribute to the law enforcement officers who arrested him.
"We will prosecute him, her, whoever it is, to the fullest extent permitted by law," the president told the White House. "We must never allow political violence to take root in America, and I am determined to do everything in my power as president to stop it and stop it now."
Lori Rosza in Florida and Andrew Ba Tran, Lindsey Bever, Shawn Boburg, Alice Crites, Alex Horton, Jenkins Jennifer, Abby Ohlheiser and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to the writing of this report.
Read more:
Florida man arrested for sending letters to public figures
Trump says media coverage of explosive devices slows GOP momentum for election
Chronology: list of targeted persons and recipients of parcels.
"A lying machine", "low IQ": what Trump called the recipients of the package
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