CLEVELAND — A 34-year-old East Cleveland man previously convicted in a 2012 terrorist plot to blow up a northeast Ohio bridge has been indicted on federal charges of possessing ricin, a biological toxin federal officials say is lethal to humans.
A federal grand jury charged Brandon L. Baxter with violating federal prohibitions on biological weapons and possessing a biological toxin as a restricted person, U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio and FBI Cleveland Division Special Agent in Charge Joshua DelManzo announced.
The indictment alleges Baxter knowingly possessed ricin. Baxter was previously convicted as part of a terrorist collective that attempted to detonate explosives at the base of the Route 82 bridge in Macedonia in 2012, according to federal prosecutors.
The FBI’s Cleveland Division investigated the case with assistance from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office and East Cleveland police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Duncan T. Brown is prosecuting the case alongside Ryan D. White, a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s National Security Division Counterterrorism Section.
Baxter is expected to be arraigned Oct. 14 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan D. Greenberg. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison on both counts.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which the government bears the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
