Police execute second warrant to clear home on Sunset Drive

LONGMONT, Colorada USA — Police found more highly explosive chemicals Tuesday night hidden in the basement of a Longmont home after investigators returned there to retrieve additional items that could be used in making explosives.

Specialist Joe Humble, left, and Detective Robert Goodard log evidence Tuesday at Ronald Swerlein’s home at 2404 Sunset Drive in Longmont. Photo: Joshua Buck/Times-Call.

Officers on Friday raided 2404 Sunset Drive and worked through Sunday to remove about 400 kinds of chemicals, and guns and ammunition. On Sunday morning, after identifying some of the explosives, 50-year-old Ronald Swerlein was arrested on suspicion of two counts of explosives possession.

Sgt. Tim Lewis of the Longmont Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit said investigators in retrospect decided Tuesday some things left in the home — including bottles of vitamins, a box of about 30 cell phones and two rock tumblers — could be used to develop explosives.

Officers, who also were searching for documents, began the second search of the home at about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’re looking for items I had no idea were bomb-making materials,” Lewis said of the new warrant.

He said cell phones can be used as triggers to remotely detonate bombs and that vitamins can be mined for explosive components, such as minerals.

Police also saw rock tumblers during the original three-day search but realized Monday that rock tumblers — machines used to polish rocks — also can be used to break down vitamins and other mineral components.

Officers retrieved dozens of vitamin bottles Tuesday from a refrigerator in the home’s basement — the same refrigerator where police found nitroglycerin over the weekend.
 
As police continued to search the home, they found rock salt and what they believed to be commercial fertilizer, both of which can be components in homemade bombs, Lewis said.

Officers also found a bottle of an “extremely volatile and extremely explosive” chemical compound hidden behind bags of rock salt stacked in the basement, Lewis said. They discovered the half pint of methyl ethyl ketone peroxide, or MEKP, that had been diluted with a stabilizing chemical, Lewis said. It sat in a stable environment, he said.

The Boulder County Bomb Squad planned to move it overnight from the basement to a special bomb trailer and take it to a bunker in Lyons to destroy it, Lewis said.

Police phoned residents living on Sunset Drive at about 9:10 p.m. Tuesday to alert them that another neighborhood evacuation, similar to one Saturday night, might be necessary.

Officers decided at about 9:50 p.m. not to evacuate any residents.

“It’s unfortunate that this chemical was so well-hidden that we have to go through this again,” Lewis said.

Police also were looking for documents that will help investigators understand why Swerlein was making the explosives. Although police are starting to get a clearer picture, “we’re not going to discuss it yet,” Lewis said.

“We’re still trying to determine what his intent was for what he was doing,” he added.

Officers planned to search the home until 1 a.m today, secure the house overnight and continue searching it after daybreak.

“We’ve tested every liquid we could find in the house,” Lewis said. “We found a lot of water, but at least we know it’s water.”

Swerlein was released from the Boulder County Jail at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday on a $50,000 bond. Boulder District Judge John Stavely ordered bond conditions that Swerlein may not possess chemicals, rocket fuels, non-prescribed drugs or weapons; may not contact the Internet-based business where he ordered many chemicals; and must remain under supervision.

He is due back in court this Friday for filing of charges in the case.

As neighbors watched police, bomb squads and hazardous material teams swarm the house again Tuesday night, some saw Swerlein’s wife, Julie Dadone — possibly with Swerlein in the car — drive by on 24th Avenue several times.

“She was going to turn onto to Sunset, but she swerved pretty quickly when she saw the cop,” said Kristi Smith, who was visiting friends who live across the street from Swerlein’s house.

Police discovered Swerlein’s activities when neighbors told officers that they had heard explosions from the home and saw Swerlein open the garage door to let out smoke after a large explosion.

Police have been looking for an amateur bomb-maker who has left dozens of small improvised bombs in the parking lot of the Longmont Clinic and the surrounding neighborhood. No one has been injured by the tiny devices, but federal agents have been helping police search for the person or people involved. So far, Swerlein is not believed to be involved with the smaller bombs, and the police investigation in that case remains open and active.

Swerlein, a retired electrical engineer who has nine registered patents for electrical devices, told police he was using the chemicals found in his home to make rocket fuel for models.

However, Warren Musselman, a board member of the Northern Colorado Rocketry Club, said on Tuesday that the explosive chemicals police have identified from the home are not components of fuels used in model rocketry.

“Our stuff burns at a predictable rate and creates a lot of gas,” he said. “Explosives don’t burn. They detonate.”

Musselman said chemicals like PETN and sodium azide are dangerous and are simply not model rocket fuel ingredients.

“Explosives of any kind don’t have anything to do with the rocketry hobby,” he said.

He estimated that only 2 percent of hobbyists make their own propellents, which typically consists of ammonium perchlorate, epoxies and powdered aluminum or magnesium.

People in the small rocketry community don’t remember Swerlein attending any meetings or events, he said.

Swerlein and his wife have not been able to return to the house because police and city officials were still clearing it of chemicals and other evidence in the case on Tuesday night. Power and water to the house was cut off, Lewis said.

The SWAT Team used seven cannisters of tear gas to flush the couple from the home on Friday. Aside from the chemicals Swerlein kept on hand, the tear gas will require a clean up as well.

Lewis said he believed it could be removed using an industrial cleaner. However, Fred Cave, owner of ABLE CTS Clean Up Inc. of Aurora, said tear gas is disbursed in a powder and is extremely difficult to clean from carpets and fabric furniture.

“It’s going to cause irritation,” he said, adding that it is best to remove carpet and fabric exposed to tear gas. Walls also have to be cleaned, he said.

Chris Allison, chief building inspector for the city of Longmont, said his staff has not been called to inspect the house. He said he heard the drywall in the garage apparently caved in, but fire officials who inspected the home have not reported any structural problems to his office.

Copyright © 2007, The Daily Times-Call.

06-20-2007 01:41 PM  #1
crontab Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 204	Quote: “Explosives of any kind don’t have anything to do with the rocketry hobby,” he said. What rocketry hobby is he participating in?

06-20-2007 07:36 PM  #2
Steve_Shannon When in doubt, ask Keenan   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 1988	Good job Warren! Warren did a good job of distancing rocketry from bombmaking. I was glad to see that the article included his comments.