The South Florida man suspected of mailing crude pipe bombs targeting former President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders has a long arrest record – including a past arrest for threatening to throw a bomb, the ABC Action News I-team found.
Cesar Sayoc, 56, was known to Florida law enforcement with a criminal history dating back decades, including an arrest in Miami in August 2002 for making threats to throw a bomb.
Court records show Sayoc received a plea deal in that arrest and was put on probation for one year.
Sayoc was arrested and is now suspected of mailing homemade pipe bombs to at least 12 prominent Trump critics.
State records reveal Sayoc’s past with police in Florida began nearly three decades ago in 1991 when he was arrested and found guilty of grand theft in Broward County. He received two years of probation in that case.
Less than a year later, he was arrested again for petty larceny.
Over the past two decades, Sayoc has been arrested for a string of crimes in Florida, including theft, battery, fraud, possession of controlled substances – listed as testosterone drugs – and tampering with evidence.
Sayoc was most recently arrested in 2015 for retail theft in Palm Beach County.
Criminal court records show Sayoc was born in Brooklyn, NY.
The bank foreclosed on Sayoc’s Broward County home in 2009, according to records obtained by the I-team.
Sayoc filed for bankruptcy in 2012. In court filings, he listed his income as $922 a month at the time and reported he worked as a store manager and lived with his mother. His only asset at the time was a 2001 Chevy Tahoe with 285,000 miles on it.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida disputed social media accounts suggesting Sayoc had a connection to the Florida tribe, saying in a statement they could find “no evidence” that he is or was “a member or employee of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, or is or was an employee of Seminole Gaming or Hard Rock International. At this time, we cannot verify if he is or was an employee of a vendor company.”
ABC Action News I-team Reporter Adam Walser and Investigative Producer Erin Smith contributed to this report.
