Federal authorities are searching a South Florida mail facility in connection with the 10 packages carrying explosive-like devices mailed to several prominent Democrats.
Oct. 26 (UPI) — Federal authorities are searching a South Florida mail facility in connection with some of the 10 packages carrying explosive-like devices mailed to several prominent Democrats this week.
Agents descended on the Opa Locka, Fla., U. S. postal facility, located on the southwest side of the Miami Opa-Locka Executive Airport, which officials say handled at least one of the packages. The Miami Herald reported the package that was returned to the Florida office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was likely handled there.
That package was sent to former U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder in the Washington, D. C. area, but sent to Florida because the address for Holder was wrong and Wasserman Schultz’s office was listed as the return address. Police said many of the packages had the congresswoman’s office listed in the upper left hand corner.
The Miami-Dade County Police Department sent a bomb squad and K-9 unit to do a sweep of the facility late Thursday but found no additional devices, officials said.
«This assistance is as a precautionary measure,» Miami-Dade County Police spokesman Argemis Colome said, the Sun-Sentinel reported . «We cannot provide additional information at this time due to the active nature of this federal investigation.»
Postal services in several places around the country also combed their databases and facilities for other devices that may be connected to the plot, investigators said.
«I will say in the postal network, we have found nothing in the last eight hours, so what we have right now is what we have — 10 parcels,» Philip Bartlett, lead postal inspector in New York, said .
The USPS facility’s inspection Thursday was part of a nationwide investigation organized by an FBI-led counter-terrorism team trying to find out who sent the devices to vocal critics of President Donald Trump — including former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rep. Maxine Waters and former Vice President Joe Biden. Philanthropist George Soros and actor Robert De Niro also received similar packages.
Authorities said all 10 packages they know of all looked similar and the devices, which are now being examined by the FBI, appeared to be live bombs.
Thursday, authorities found three other similar packages — two sent to Biden in Delaware and one to De Niro, a vocal critic of Trump, in New York City.
