Magazines from ‘domestic terrorism threat’ found in Sunset Drive home

LONGMONT, Colorada USA — Ronald Swerlein kept magazines in his home from the Animal Liberation Front, a group the FBI calls a “leading domestic terrorism threat,” according to police.

Officers seized the magazines from Swerlein’s home at 2404 Sunset Drive during a second search Tuesday night.

Police first searched the 50-year-old’s home over the weekend and arrested him Sunday on suspicion of possessing and making explosives.

Swerlein has a right to have any publication, but it is a piece of the investigation that officers must check out, said Longmont Police Sgt. Tim Lewis.

“I have found no targets, no specific intent to harm anyone or anything with his activity,” Lewis said.

According to a search warrant inventory, police seized four magazines from the Animal Liberation Front from Swerlein’s home. The warrant requesting the search said the magazines describe arsons and use of explosives claimed by members of the group, who typically remain anonymous.

The group’s Web site states that individuals work on their own or with small “cells” of people to reduce animal suffering through “direct actions.” The site adds that “many of these actions are illegal under a current societal structure that fails to recognize the rights of non-human animals to live free of suffering.”

Police also seized homemade nitroglycerin, highly unstable sodium azide, PETN and MEKP, a volatile chemical that had been stabilized and hidden in the basement.

“He wasn’t interacting with anyone else to show them his explosives,” Lewis said. “He was doing them on his own.”
 
Along with about 400 different chemicals and books on homemade explosives, police also took three metal grenade shells, 15 boxes of military fuel shells, a Glock 22 handgun, multiple flare guns, multiple stun guns, a Taser and cartridges, a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, a five-shot revolver, a 9-mm semiautomatic, a .40-caliber Glock, a .38-caliber revolver, a Colt .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, several other guns, and boxes of ammunition for the guns.

Police also took a handwritten “to-do” list and a “warning note,” although investigators would not discuss the contents of either.

Police served a first search warrant on the home Friday night after a neighbor reported hearing three explosions at the house early in the morning on June 12.

Swerlein was arrested on suspicion of possessing explosives early Sunday morning after police confirmed the nature of some of the chemicals they found in the house, which he told officers he ordered online.

Police had been looking for an amateur bombmaker who has left dozens of tiny explosive devices in the Longmont Clinic parking lot and in the surrounding neighborhood.

Although that case led investigators to Swerlein, police do not believe he is responsible for the Longmont Clinic devices. Lewis has described the massive chemical and weapons cache found in the home as more “complex.”

Swerlein is out of jail on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to return to court Friday for filing of charges.

Swerlein told officers he was developing fuel for model rockets, though local enthusiasts said the chemicals used in model rocketry are not explosive. Officers found some model rockets, rocket kits and engines, and a launching pad, according to the property evidence report.

Officers also found 17 credit cards in the home, Lewis said.

Swerlein’s chemistry glassware is extremely expensive, Lewis said. There has been no evidence so far that any outside organization funded any of Swerlein’s possessions or experiments. He seemed to have enough money to pay for things himself, Lewis said.

Police are still reviewing hundreds of pieces of evidence seized from the home. Lewis said investigators, who finally cleared the home Wednesday morning, still haven’t had a chance to examine Swerlein’s computer.

Although yellow police tape still crossed the front yard and driveway Wednesday evening, Swerlein and his wife, Julie Dadone, are allowed to return to the home, Lewis said. Officials gave the couple permission to have the city turn on power and water to the house, and then they can “re-enter and occupy” the house, Lewis said.

Swerlein is a retired electrical engineer who worked at Hewlett-Packard and then Agilent in Loveland. He suffered injuries in a 2004 head-on accident and retired after that. He has nine patents for electrical devices registered in his name.

Staff writer Rachel Carter contributed to this report.

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