Man arrested in connection with suspicious packages sent to US govt addresses

A man in his 40s was arrested on Monday, March 26, on charges for sending more than a dozen suspicious packages to the government's addresses in Washington DC, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday, March 27.

Identified as Tranh Cong Phan, the man was arrested at his residence in the Seattle area and was scheduled to appear in the court on Tuesday.

Phan is believed to have despatched 12 packages to the US's government and military addresses in the Washington metro area, NBC News cited the officials as saying.

The suspicious packages were seen at the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CIA) mail-sorting facility in suburban Washington besides a navy facility at Dahlgren and two facilities at Fort Belvoir, both in Virginia, said the report.

FBI sleuths discovered the packages to be containing potential destructive devices and appeared to have been sent by the same person. The officials also described the letters that some packages included as disturbing.

The authorities did not confirm the motive behind the act and it was believed to have been done more for causing fear than a real devastation.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis later told the media that all the packages that were sent to the defence department addresses were taken over by the FBI authorities.

The package incident happened less than a week after a man suspected in serial bombings in Austin killed himself. The bomber sent explosive packages to Austin in Texas earlier this month, killing a couple of persons.

The timing of these strange mailings is definitely eerie, coming less than a week after the suspect in serial bombings in Austin blew himself up. The bomber sent explosive packages to areas in Texas's capital in March, which left two people dead.

OneIndia News