A Connecticut man charged with manufacturing and selling eight homemade cardboard tubes packed with explosives from his car in a Bronx parking lot was ordered held without bail Friday.
Nicholas Lahines of Bridgeport, Conn., was charged in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in a criminal complaint with five counts related to selling and transporting explosives.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry B. Pitman ordered him held without bail after his initial court appearance. He said Lahines was a danger to the community.
His lawyer, Peggy Cross, declined to comment but said in court that Lahines should be allowed to stay with his mother in Florida while awaiting trial.
The complaint said an overnight search of Lahines' apartment turned up several more tubes similar in shape and dimension to those he sold for $3,200 to a confidential source working for the government when he was arrested Thursday.
The complaint said at least one law enforcement officer was injured during the search when agents examined a small jar containing a small amount of a white powdery residue and the substance detonated.
It said agents also identified about 15 flashlights that a bomb technician at the scene said appeared to have been adapted to form a destructive device and they saw three photographs of between 50 and 80 cylindrical objects with fuses that appeared similar in size to those Lahines sold.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley told Pitman that a search of his apartment showed there were bomb-making materials strewn about.
Connecticut FBI spokesman William Reinter said there was no evidence of ties to terrorism in the case.
