FBI arrests man in plot to detonate bomb at Oklahoma bank
Jerry Drake Varnell, 23, was arrested on Saturday over his alleged plans to detonate an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank
A 23-year-old man has been arrested after he attempted to detonate what he thought was an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank.
Jerry Drake Varnell, of Sayre, was arrested on Saturday over the plot in Oklahoma City.
The plan was reminiscent of the deadly 1995 bombing by anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh in the same city.
Varnell was arrested after attempting to trigger what he thought was an ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb - like McVeigh's - outside a BancFirst branch in the center of the city.
A federal complaint says the FBI learned in December that Varnell wanted to blow up a building and that an undercover FBI agent posed as someone who could help.
Varnell told the undercover agent that he initially wanted to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C. - eight blocks from the White House.
Varnell is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday afternoon on a charge of attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce.