A former teacher and his twin face federal bomb-making charges after more than 32 pounds of explosives were found in their Bronx apartment, alongside documents suggesting they planned to kill. Christian and Tyler Toro, 27, were arrested in a Thursday raid in which police say they also found a diary referring to "Operation Flash" and an index card reading, "Under the full moon the small ones will know terror," per the New York Times. It was the culmination of an investigation launched after a 15-year-old called in a bomb threat at Democracy Prep High School, where Christian Toro taught, on Dec. 4, police say. After the student claimed it had been Toro's idea, the teacher resigned Jan. 9, turning in a laptop that held a downloaded book on bomb-making, though Toro said it was from research on the Boston Marathon bombing and that he had only read the table of contents, per the Daily Beast.
Authorities charged him with raping a minor on Jan. 31, alleging he took a 15-year-old female student to his home to have sex on two occasions. As the investigation continued, police say they learned Toro had paid at least two students to extract explosive powder from fireworks inside his apartment between October and January. Thursday's search of the apartment revealed simulated weapons, explosives, and bomb-making materials including metal balls possibly to be used as shrapnel, police say. "If you’re registered as a sex offender, things will be difficult. But I am here 100%, living, buying weapons, whatever we need," read a portion of the diary containing Tyler Toro's name, according to the complaint. While the complaint doesn't reveal details of the alleged plot, Mayor Bill de Blasio says the arrests of the two men "likely saved many, many lives." (More bomb plot stories.)
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