Retired cop who arrested suspect in 2002 says he’s “not well”
The Miami police investigator who arrested Cesar Sayoc for threatening to blow up an FPL building in 2002 told CBS Miami he was not surprised when he heard Sayoc was arrested in connection with the recent spate of package bombs.
“Unfortunately, in law enforcement things like this can come back up,” said the retired investigator, who spoke on condition his name not be released.
“I think anybody who wants to kill somebody, there are some issues there,” he added. “I obviously think this person is not well.”
According to a 2002 police report, Sayoc “threatened to blow up FPL and that `It would be worse than September 11.'” He also threatened to kill the FPL representative “if they cut his electricity.”
“There was nothing significant that stands out about that case,” the former bomb squad investigator explained.
“We were getting a lot of calls right after 9/11,” he said, adding the complaint also came in the midst of the anthrax mail threats that were terrorizing elected officials. “Normally the bomb squad gets a couple of calls a month. Back then [in 2002] we were getting fifteen a day.”
The investigator, along with an agent from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, drove to Sayoc’s apartment in Hallandale Beach to make the arrest. The police report listed Sayoc’s occupation in 2002 as “Dry Cleaner.”
The investigator said the arrest went smoothly and that Sayoc was cooperative. He eventually pleaded guilty to the bomb threat charge and was sentenced to one-year probation.
Now a private security consultant, the former bomb technician said soon after Sayoc was arrested Friday morning he started getting phone calls from former law enforcement colleagues. “I remembered the name, but not the picture,” he said.
The former Miami police investigator said it was impressive, but not shocking, that federal agents made an arrest in the package bomb case so quickly. “The investigative tools available for law enforcement now are amazing,” he said. “There are always leads available.”
