Ex-Teacher Christian Toro, Brother Tyler Allegedly Had Students Help Make Bombs

A former teacher at a Harlem high school in the Bronx, New York City, and his twin brother were arrested Thursday after police discovered they kept more than 30 pounds of bomb-making materials, a note suggesting a plan to wage a terrorist strike and paid students to break down fireworks in order to extract gun powder for the explosives.

New York Police Department (NYPD) officials and the FBI raided Christian, the former teacher, and his twin brother Tyler Toro’s Pelham Parkway apartment Thursday and discovered 20 pounds of iron oxide, 5 pounds of aluminum powder, 5 pounds of potassium nitrate and 2 pounds of confectioner’s sugar, along with a jar of explosive powder and metal fragments — all materials that can be used to build bombs, police alleged.

Authorities stated the pair have been compiling the bomb-making materials since last October; however, they assured the twins had not made any specific threat or completed any devices.

"There is no imminent threat to New York City at this time," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news conference Thursday night.

Christian and Tyler Toro were arrested in a joint counter-terrorism operation involving the NYPD and the FBI. The charges do not allege terror-related offenses but only the explosives-related counts.

Christian was additionally charged with distributing explosive materials to a minor. The pair pleaded "not guilty" in federal court Thursday.

Authorities said they found a diary, along with a purple index card packed inside a yellow backpack, when they raided the pair’s residence, with the words, "UNDER THE FULL MOON THE SMALL ONES WILL KNOW TERROR," according to a federal complaint filed Thursday.

The raid also discovered Tyler's diary, which read, "WHEN YOU FIND OUT I THREW AWAY ALL EVIDENCE (OF OPERATION CODE NAME ‘FLASH’) I COULD FIND IN YOUR ROOM, I HOPE THIS DOESN’T TURN INTO A SCENE FROM GOODFELLAS," according to the complaint.

"WE ARE TWIN TOROS STRIKE US NOW, WE WILL RETURN WITH NANO THERMITE," the diary mentioned.

Christian was accused of paying his former students at the school $50 per hour to break down fireworks and remove the gun powder for the explosives, feds alleged Thursday. He had quit his job Dec. 4 when one of the students was caught after calling in a bomb threat. After he resigned, his brother reportedly returned a school-issued laptop, in which a technical specialist at the school discovered a digital copy of a bomb-making book.

The FBI confronted Christian regarding the book Feb. 8, however he then said he "had been researching the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings" and "had never built a bomb and had only looked at the Explosives Books table of contents," court papers alleged.

However, authorities questioned students at the teacher's former school Wednesday and found "at least two students" went to the pair's home to break down fireworks and then store the explosive powder in containers.

Christian was previously arrested Jan. 31 on a third-degree rape charge after he was accused of allegedly having a series of sexual encounters with a 15-year-old girl at his residence between September 2017 and January 2018, according to law enforcement sources.