ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 11, 1993                   TAG: 9305110036
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT SUSPECTED OF MAILING BOMB TO REPAIR SHOP

A Virginia Tech electrical engineering student who was upset about repair work on his car is under investigation in the mailing of an explosive device to the service manager of the repair shop.

The electronically controlled device ignited prematurely, launching the package out of a mail hamper and across a mail-sorting center in Arlington. Frightened postal clerks called in bomb experts, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Roanoke.

That in turn launched a five-month investigation that led postal inspectors on Friday to raid the Virginia Tech dormitory room of Felix M. Huang, a junior.

Huang has not been charged, but postal inspectors said the 1991 graduate of Alexandria's Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is under investigation on a charge of mailing an explosive device with intent to injure another. That charge carries a possible 20-year sentence.

No one was injured when the package exploded at the Postal Service's Shirlington sorting center in Arlington on Nov. 3. But, Karen Luehrf, a Postal Service spokeswoman, said "You'd of had to see this go off." The Postal Service does not dismiss the incident as a hoax or prank, she said.

According to court records, a clerk at the center heard a pop, and a hissing sound come from a hamper where a heavy package had just been placed. Before the clerk had a chance to do anything, the package blasted out of the hamper in a cloud of smoke and landed 10 feet away. The air smelled of fireworks.

Bomb experts X-rayed the box and discovered two battery-wired model-rocket engines, one of which still was live.

Virginia State Police deactivated the device. Postal inspectors found a threatening note inside saying, "You and yours may consider this a mere warning. Satisfaction is near."

the package was mailed to Larry Muzamel, service director at Rosenthal Chevrolet in Arlington.

Muzamel, who now works at a Toyota dealership in Maryland, said Monday that Huang had been very upset about repair work performed on a used 1986 Chevrolet Caprice he had bought. It was a You and yours may consider this a mere warning. Satisfaction is near. Note found inside an explosive device mailed to an Arlington car dealer's repair shop manager used police car with more than 100,000 miles on it, and there wasn't much that could be done, Muzamel said.

Huang also had written a letter to General Motors "expressing extreme displeasure with the service he received from Rosenthal Chevrolet." In the letter, Huang said, "Perhaps justice shall occur at a later date," according to court records.

"He had a love affair with his car," one federal court official said.

According to court records, postal inspectors found Huang's fingerprint on the box containing the rocket engines. Authorities determined that the box had been used earlier to mail computer software to Huang's brother.

Inspectors also discovered that some of the electronic material used to build the device was similar to electronic parts used in classes at Huang's high school while he was a student there. Some of the wire used appeared identical to wire in kits supplied to Virginia Tech's electrical engineering students, court documents say.

When inspectors searched Huang's dorm room they seized his computer, printer and computer files. They said they also discovered several files containing keys to Virginia Tech offices.

Huang could not be reached for comment Monday.

David Nutter, a Tech public information officer, said Huang and his brother still are enrolled at Tech. He declined to comment on what was found in the files that contained the keys. He said only that Tech is working with state and federal authorities "investigating the material found in that room."

"This is a strange story," he said.



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