Man arrested after more suspicious packages found in US, addressed to Democrat senator; James Clapper

Authorities have arrested a suspect in Florida after two more suspicious bomb packages were intercepted last night.

NYPD's Total Containment vessel arrives as law enforcement respond to the scene of a suspicious package at a postal facility on Friday. Picture: AP

US authorities have arrested a man in Florida in connection with the package bombs that have been sent to high-profile Democrats and critics of Donald Trump..

“We can confirm one person is in custody,” a US Department of Justice spokeswoman tweeted.

A law enforcement source has revealed the person was taken into custody in the Miami area.

Authorities had earlier found two more suspicious packages, one addressed to Democratic Senator Cory Booker and another to James Clapper, the former US director of national intelligence.

A package had been found at a mail sorting facility in Florida on Friday and was addressed to Booker, the senator from New Jersey, the FBI said on Twitter.

Another package was addressed to James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, and sent to CNN, the cable network reported.

Twelve such packages have now been found.

Meanwhile, a local police bomb squad and canine units joined federal investigators on Thursday to examine a sprawling US mail distribution centre at Opa-Locka, northwest of Miami, Miami-Dade County police said. US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that Florida appeared to be the starting point for at least some of the bomb shipments.

“Some of the packages went through the mail. They originated, some of them, from Florida,” she said during an interview with Fox News Channel on Thursday. “I am confident that this person or people will be brought to justice.” All the people targeted were frequently maligned by right-wing critics. They included Democratic Party donor George Soros, former president Barack Obama, former vice president Joe Biden, and former secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has said that at least five of the packages bore a return address from the Florida office of US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee. None of the packages have detonated and no one has been hurt. The devices were thought to have been fashioned from bomb-making designs widely available on the internet, a federal law enforcement source told Reuters. Investigators have declined to say whether the devices were built to be functional. Bomb experts and security analysts say that based on their rudimentary construction it appeared they were more likely designed to sow fear rather than to kill.

The parcels each consisted of a manila envelope with a bubble-wrap interior containing “potentially destructive devices,” the FBI said.

Each was affixed with a computer-printed address label and six US “Forever” postage stamps, the agency said.

Others who received the bombs were former Attorney-General Eric Holder, former CIA director John Brennan, US Representative Maxine Waters of California, and actor Robert De Niro.

Two packages were sent both to Waters and Biden.

After first calling for “unity” and civil discourse on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump lashed out again Thursday at the “hateful” media. “Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticise me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticise them they go wild and scream, “it’s just not Presidential!” Trump said on Twitter at about 3.15am local time on Friday.

Reuters