MIAMI _ Federal agents arrested a South Florida man outside an auto parts store on Friday as a prime suspect in a string of pipe-bomb mailings to prominent Democrats and other critics of President Donald Trump.
A trail of tell-tale evidence helped investigators quickly focus a nationwide manhunt on Cesar Sayoc Jr., a 56-year-old ardent bodybuilder and self-described entertainment promoter from Aventura with a lengthy list of arrests _ including for a bomb threat in Miami-Dade in 2002 over a pricey electric bill.
Among the connections, a law enforcement source told the Miami Herald: a latent fingerprint on an envelope, which matched DNA evidence from previous criminal arrests. They also scrutinized Sayoc's voluminous social media posts, his cellphone records and his movements throughout South Florida to carry out the threats against Democratic targets.
"It was a little bit of everything," said one law enforcement official.
Agents also seized and towed away his white van, which had most of its windows covered in pro-Donald Trump and right-wing stickers. Law enforcement sources told the Miami Herald Sayoc had been living in the vehicle.
Photos of the van, posted by a Twitter user who said he saw the car at a stoplight in April, show rifle scope cross hairs placed over the faces of Hillary Clinton, progressive filmmaker Michael Moore and President Barack Obama. Another said "CNN Sucks," along with an image of Trump standing on a tank in front of fireworks and an American flag.
Investigators draped the vehicle with a blue tarp and towed it away on a flatbed truck.
Sayoc was formally charged Friday afternoon with interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of explosives, threats against former presidents, threatening interstate communications and assaulting federal officers. The five charges carry a potential 58 years in total jail time if Sayoc is convicted, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said.
President Donald Trump, in a speech given shortly after Sayoc's arrest, praised the speed of the investigation and condemned acts of political violence.
"Congratulations to all law enforcement. We have the best in the world and they just showed it," he said.
The arrest was made at an AutoZone in Plantation instead of his home to avoid any potential dangerous confrontation, sources told the Miami Herald. News partner CBS4 reports a "loud explosion" was heard at the time of the arrest, possibly from an FBI flash bomb device.
Sayoc was a frequent poster on social media sites, and his Twitter and Facebook accounts were filled with pro-Trump memes and attacks on Democrats _ including a string linking Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for Florida governor, with billionaire George Soros, a major party donor and recipient of one of the menacing mailings. He frequently posted photos of himself bare-chested and flexing, in one, sprawled across a motorcycle.
In February 2004, Sayoc was arrested and charged by the Broward Sheriff's Office with four counts of possession of steroids with intent to sell _ a felony charge. He pled not guilty and the case was dismissed a year later.
Court records show he had nearly a dozen past arrests, including a Miami-Dade bomb threat to a Florida Power & Light employee over a high power bill.
"The defendant then stated that he didn't deserve it and that he was going to blow up FPL," according to files released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. "FPL will get what they deserve and will be worse than 9/11."
Sayoc also told an employee he "was going to blow her head off," according to the case file. The call was recorded and Sayoc was later arrested by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents.
Other cases included grand theft and battery in Broward County. In 1994, a woman who appears to be his grandmother filed and then quickly withdrew a criminal complaint against him for domestic violence.
State records show he's a serial entrepreneur, including most recently interest in a Hallandale Beach catering company and a business called Sayex Ltd. in Miami Beach. Records indicate at one point he lived with his parents in an Aventura condo. He also has used a variety of names across social media and legal documents, including Cesar Altieri, Caesar Altieri, Caesar Altieri Sayoc, Ceasar Altieri Randazzo or Julus Cesar Milan.
FBI agents brought the man into custody at the bureau's South Florida field office in Miramar and plan to question him at length. The interview, assuming the suspect doesn't hire a lawyer and refuse to talk, could last hours _ ranging from questions about where the suspect bought the materials to make the bombs to where he initially posted the packages for mailing to his targets.
Sayoc likely will be held over the weekend and have his first appearance in Miami federal court on Monday.
Federal investigators quickly centered the investigation of the 13 crudely fashioned "pipe bombs" sent to top Trump critics, including Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, on a mail sorting facility in Opa-locka. Each of the packages contained six inches of PVC pipe, a small clock battery, wiring and "energetic material" that could be potentially explosive if exposed to heat, shock or friction, FBI Director Chris Wray said at a news conference in Washington.
"These are not hoax devices," he said.
Some of the packages included pictures of the intended recipients marked with a red "X."
The devices have been recovered in New York, Washington, D.C., California and South Florida, all with the return address of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wassermann Schultz's office. Several words, including her name, were misspelled on the packages.
Three new packages were discovered Friday morning. The intended recipients were New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Nextgen America head Tom Steyer. The first was found Monday in the home mailbox of Democratic donor George Soros.
The arrest came a couple of hours after Trump cast doubt on the timing of "this 'Bomb' stuff" in a tweet.
