Former Harlem Teacher Pleads Guilty To Bomb-Making Scheme: Feds

HARLEM, NY — A former Harlem charter school teacher and his twin brother pleaded guilty to an elaborate bomb-making scheme that involved paying students $50 per hour to help manufacture explosives, federal prosecutors announced.

Christian Toro and Tyler Toro, both 28, pleaded guilty to one ocunt of conspiracy to manufacture and unlawfully possess a destructive device, one count of unlawfully manufacturing a destructive device and one count of unlawfully possessing a destructive device, federal prosecutors said. The maximum sentence the brothers face is 25 years in federal prison.

The brothers were arrested in February after federal agents searched their Bronx apartment. The search uncoverd the following bomb-making materials in the home:

• A glass jar containing low explosive powder;
• A strip of magnesium metal;
• Approximately twenty pounds of iron oxide;
• Approximately five pounds of aluminum powder;
• A mixture of iron oxide and aluminum powder, the key ingredients for thermite;
• Approximately five pounds of potassium nitrate;
• A cardboard box containing firecrackers;
• Metal spheres.

A federal investigation into the brothers began in December of 2017 when Christian Toro resigned from his teaching position at Harlem Prep High School, a charter school located on East 123rd Street and Second Avenue.

School employees found copies of a book that detailed how to construct explosive devices on a laptop returned to the school after Toro's resignation. During the investigation, agents interviewed students at the school who said the Toro brother's paid them $50 per hour to break down fireworks to extract the explosive powder in their Bronx apartment.

Cryptic threats were also found in a diary that was seized when agents searched Toro's apartment. The passages included threats such as "WE ARE TWIN TOROS STRIKE US NOW, WE WILL RETURN WITH NANO THERMITE" and "I AM HERE 100%, LIVING, BUYING WEAPONS. WHATEVER WE NEED."

The diary also referenced an "Operation Flash," which appeared to detail the process of having students break down fireworks for the explosive material.

"As admitted in court today, Christian Toro and Tyler Toro sought to build a destructive device that could have caused great damage. Christian Toro used a minor student to assist him in this endeavor. Thanks to the excellent work of the FBI and the NYPD, no one was injured as a result of this grave conduct, and the defendants now await sentencing for their crimes," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement.

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