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IPFS News Link • FBI

FBI: Oklahoma City bank explosion plot foiled by undercover operation

• http://www.cbsnews.com, By CRIMESIDER STAFF

According to a criminal complaint filed in the Western District of Oklahoma yesterday, the FBI arrested 23-year-old Jerry Drake Varnell of Sayre after he attempted to detonate the device, which was actually inert. The complaint says Varnell initially wanted to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., with a device similar to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, because he was upset with the government. Varnell allegedly claimed to embrace the "Three Percenter" ideology, referring to a far-right anti-government group that has rallied against gun control efforts and pledges resistance to the federal government over the infringement of constitutional rights.

The FBI was tipped off to the plot by a confidential informant and sent undercover agents posing as someone who could help him, the complaint says.

Varnell allegedly claimed to have experience making small bombs, but was convinced by an undercover agent, posing as an explosives expert nicknamed "Professor," that the agent should provide the supplies. The undercover agent met face-to-face with him on June 1 to discuss obtaining materials for an ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb similar to the one used in the Oklahoma City bombing, the complaint states.


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