Threatened to Bomb in 2002…
Who is Cesar Sayoc, the Florida man arrested in the mail pipe bomb case?
The South Florida man arrested in connection with suspected explosive packages had a long criminal history, including a previous arrest in Miami-Dade for making a bomb threat.
Here is what’s known about the suspect:
According to his Facebook page, Cesar Sayoc, 56, is from Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Florida, where he attended North Miami Beach Senior High and has been registered to vote in Miami-Dade as a Republican since 2012. Federal sources said Sayoc lived in Aventura at the time of his arrest.
Sayoc appears to have been an avid Trump supporter. His van, which was seized by federal agents, was covered in pro-Donald Trump and right wing stickers. Photos on his Facebook page shows Sayoc wearing a red Make American Great Again baseball cap. He also posted multiple videos from a Trump rally. His Facebook feed is a mishmash of pro-Trump news stories, racist memes and fake news about Democrats. Popular targets include Islam — which one meme calls “a barbaric evil cult” — and Hillary Clinton.
“Hilary Clinton health decline and headed to graveyard where she has had many executed. The lord delivering death and America will celebrate,” he wrote in September 2016.
Sayoc is the manager of a catering company in Hallandale Beach called Native American Catering & Vending, according to business records. He registered a second Hallandale Beach company, VER TECH AG, in July. The address where Sayoc registered the catering company appears to be a P.O. Box at a Hallandale Beach post office. Employees at the post office wouldn’t say whether the FBI had searched the P.O. Box. There was no sign of the FBI or other law enforcement at the post office on Friday afternoon.
Although a sticker on Sayoc’s van reads “Native Americans For Trump” and his Twitter feed includes several references to the Seminole Tribe, Seminole spokesman Gary Bitner said there are no records of Sayoc having ever been a member of the tribe.
According to Ancestry.com, Sayoc’s father immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines and was naturalized in 1970 in North Miami Beach.
Public records show that Sayoc had been arrested numerous times in South Florida.
He was arrested in Miami-Dade in 2002 for making a bomb threat against Florida Power and Light, court records show. Sayoc called FPL because he was upset about the amount of his 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 said, according to the case notes.
Sayoc also told an FPL employee he “was going to blow her head off,” according to the case file. The call was recorded and Sayoc was later arrested by FDLE agents. He was sentenced to one year of probation.
Sayoc was also arrested on petty theft charges in Miami-Dade in 1992 and 2014 and sentenced to probation.
Sayoc also had multiple run-ins with the law in Broward County, including for grand theft and battery. Sayoc pleaded no contest to charges of third-degree grand theft and battery on a merchant in 2014, and was arrested in 2004 for possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and with intent to sell. Those charges were dismissed in 2005. In 1991, Sayoc pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree grand theft and was sentenced to two years’ probation and a fine.
He was also involved in a domestic violence dispute with a woman named Viola Altieri, who appears to be his grandmother. Altieri filed a civil complaint against Sayoc for domestic violence in 1994. She later filed a request to dismiss the complaint.
Despite his criminal history, however, Sayoc’s criminal past wouldn’t point to his alleged bomb threats against prominent Democratic figures, said a former state and federal prosecutor who has tried both murder and terrorism cases in South Florida.
“This is not a criminal mastermind by any stretch of the imagination, but he has had numerous interactions with law enforcement,” said Miami defense attorney David Weinstein, who formerly served as the chief of the counter-terrorism section in the U.S. attorney’s office…. more here
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article220672300.html