ATLANTA — A 56-year-old man from Florida has been taken into custody in connection with a series of package bombs sent to prominent Democrats.
According to The Associated Press, the suspect has been identified as Cesar Sayoc. The FBI said Friday he will be charged with five counts including threatening former presidents and illegal mailing and transportation of explosives.
Court records show Sayoc, an amateur body builder with social media accounts that denigrate Democrats and praise Trump, has a history of arrests for theft, illegal steroids possession and a 2002 charge of making a bomb threat.
Officials have located at least 14 devices addressed in recent days to Democratic figures including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.
The FBI said Friday that a package addressed to Sen. Cory Booker, of New Jersey, was intercepted in Florida.
Another was discovered at a Manhattan postal facility and was addressed to former national intelligence director James Clapper at CNN's address.
A third package addressed to Sen. Kamala Harris' was being investigated by authorities in Sacramento Friday afternoon. Another package was addressed to billionaire donor Tom Steyer, also in California.
It is unclear if the latest suspicious packages contained explosive devices or fit the description of the other packages.
The targets have all been high-profile critics of President Donald Trump.
BELOW ARE MINUTE-BY-MINUTE UPDATES:
6:10 p.m.
Vice President Mike Pence addressed the arrest at a campaign even in Roswell, New Mexico Friday.
"We will never allow our political differences to justify threats or acts of violence — not now, not ever," he said."
5:10 p.m.
A man who operates a property management office near the Florida auto parts store where Sayoc parked his van says the suspect didn't resist when armed police officers swarmed and arrested him.
Thomas Fiori, a former federal law enforcement officer, said he saw an undercover police officer in a nearby SUV looking at the AutoZone store with binoculars Friday.
Within minutes, he heard a small explosion, probably a device police use to distract people. He said 50 officers swarmed the suspect's van with their firearms drawn.
4:20 p.m.
Sen. Kamala Harris has issued a statement after an IED was mailed to her offices earlier Friday:
4:18 p.m.
Former President Obama, the target of at least one package bomb, speaks out for the first time at an event in Wisconsin.
3:57 p.m.
ABC News has obtained the official complaint filed against suspect Cesar Sayoc. He has been arrested at least eight times in Florida alone, with charges from a misdemeanor to grand theft auto. In 2002 he pleaded guilty to threatening to "discharge a destructive device."
3:00 p.m.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said "These are not hoax devices" and confirms at least 13 IEDs were sent.
2:57 p.m.
FBI Director Christopher Wray says investigators were able to match a fingerprint on an IED sent to Rep. Maxine Waters and other DNA evidence to attempted mail bombing suspect Cesar Sayoc.
He will be charged with five crimes including threatening a former president and others, illegally mailing explosives, interstate transportation of explosives, assaulting federal officers and threatening interstate commerce.
2:50 p.m.
The Dept. of Justice is giving an update on the bombing suspect, saying he will be charged with five federal crimes including making threats against former presidents and illegally mailing explosives:
2:44 p.m.
Another package sent to billionaire donor Tom Steyer has been discovered in California.
2:37 p.m.
The Associated Press confirms that Sen. Kamala Harris' office says authorities in Sacramento are investigating suspicious package mailed to her.
2:16 p.m.
Our sister station WFTV got their hands on Sayoc's arrest records from 2002. An affidavit says he called police and said it would "be worse than September 11."
1:30 p.m.
Vice President Mike Pence has weighed in on the arrest of Cesar Sayoc.
1:20 p.m.
Law enforcement sources tell ABC News that the suspect was tracked down using a mobile phone.
12:37 p.m.
President Trump says the suspect in the mail bomb scare will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
"These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country," Trump said.
12:29 p.m.
Three law enforcement officials have identified the person in custody as Cesar Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Florida, according to the Associated Press.
11:58 a.m.
The suspect in custody in connection with suspected mail-bomb campaign was tracked through a cell phone, according to ABC News.
11:45 a.m.
President Trump said he will address the package bombs shortly.
11:43 a.m.
A law enforcement official tells the Associated Press the person in custody in Florida is a man in his 50s
11:35 a.m.
Video shows federal agents and police officers examining a white van in the parking lot of a business in Plantation, Florida.
The van had several stickers on the windows, including American flags.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
WHAT DO THE PACKAGES LOOK LIKE?
The packages came with a computer-printed address label, a computer-printed return address label with Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s name misspelled, and six “Forever” postage stamps that bear the American flag, according to law enforcement authorities.
WHAT TYPE OF DEVICES ARE IN THE PACKAGES?
Some investigators have called the devices pipe bombs.
The FBI has not called the contents of the package a “bomb,” only that they were “potentially destructive devices.”
ISN'T A PIPE BOMB AN IED?
Yes, pipe bombs are improvised explosive devices.
IEDs are bombs made of various materials that are not meant to be detonated in a conventional military situation.
WERE THE DEVICES FUNCTIONAL?
According to the FBI, the packages contained “potentially destructive devices.”
No investigating authority has said if the devices were functioning bombs.
WAS THIS AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT?
If the packages did contain functioning bombs, it could be considered an assassination attempt.
No investigating agency has classified the delivery of the packages as an assassination attempt.
WHO IS INVESTIGATING?
According to the FBI, the bureau “will continue to work with our federal law enforcement partners at the United States Secret Service, United States Postal Inspection Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as our state and local law enforcement partners, to identify and arrest the person or people responsible for sending these packages.”
Each of the packages is being sent to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, according to a press release from the FBI.
WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES?
A person sending an explosive device to someone would face a variety of charges including attempted murder.
They would face additional federal charges if the devices were sent through the mail.
From Findlaw.com, “Mailing explosives through the United States Postal Service (USPS) is also illegal through a separate statute. While mailing prohibited items can result in fines and/or up to a year of imprisonment, if the prohibited items are mailed with the intent to injure or kill another person, the penalty increases to a prison term not exceeding 20 years. Finally, if a person is convicted under this statute and there was a death as a result of mailing prohibited items, the offender can receive life in prison or the death penalty.”
The Associated Press, ABC News and the Cox Media Group National Content Desk contributed to this report.