Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992 TAG: 9203190084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A state police bomb squad worked for about three hours to defuse the bombs, which were found in a house in the 2400 block of Clifton Avenue about 8 p.m.
Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms joined in the investigation.
"These bombs could kill you," said Jim Silvey, ATF resident agent in charge. "They were as powerful as a hand grenade. They could do some damage to people, but they aren't going to blow a house down."
Police said there is a nationwide trend toward increased bomb use by drug traffickers.
"This is something else in their arsenal," said Jim Ruhland, assistant special agent in charge of general investigations for the state police in Salem.
Roanoke police have investigated two incidents in which pipe bombs have exploded in the past three months.
The door of a 10th Street record store was damaged when a pipe bomb placed against the door exploded Dec. 31.
And the driver's side door glass of a car was blown out and the interior damaged when a pipe bomb exploded in the 1800 block of Westport Avenue Southwest on Jan. 18.
Tuesday night on Clinton Avenue, one of the bombs was found in the living area of the two-story house. Another was found in a storage area underneath the house.
Silvey said the bombs were constructed out of 6-inch pipes stuffed with black powder. The bombs had fuses sticking out one end.
Ruhland said the bombs were removed from the house and hauled to an open field in a specially reinforced bomb trailer.
The bombs were defused by state police technicians who turned them over to city evidence technicians, who will take them to the lab for analysis.
ATF agents, state police and Roanoke police were continuing to investigate.
Vice officers went to the house after an informant told them that crack cocaine had been sold there within the past 72 hours.
According to a search warrant affidavit, the informant had bought a hard, white, chunky substance at the house from a man who said it was crack cocaine.
The affidavit said the informant was familiar with crack cocaine because he is an admitted user.
After police entered, two men at the house were arrested.
Edwin Lewis Brown, 29, was charged with possessing a firearm while selling and conspiring to distribute crack cocaine.
Michael Anthony Preston, 30, was charged with possessing crack cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm while possessing crack cocaine.
A Roanoke police spokesman said officers recovered about 6 grams of suspected crack cocaine during the raid.
Silvey said police also found two pistols and two rifles in the house. He said state charges may be dropped in lieu of federal drug and firearms charges, which would carry a mandatory 10-year prison term.
The bombs were discovered in a section of the city wracked by drug activity and drug-related violence in the past year.
Earlier this month, Terry Wayne Anderson, 20, of Christiansburg was shot and killed on nearby Lafayette Boulevard after what police described as a dispute over drugs. A 15-year-old has been charged with capital murder.
In August, Richard Allen Whorley was shot in a drug-related killing on Clifton Avenue. Troy Pleasants, 22, received a life sentence plus two years after being convicted of murder.
by CNB