Christian Toro, left, and Tyler Toro, right were both arrested Thursday after the FBI raided their Bronx apartment.
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An ex-New York City high school teacher was charged in a federal complaint Thursday for allegedly using students to assist in making a bomb.
Christian Toro, a 27-year-old Bronx resident, appeared in Manhattan federal court for the alleged offenses, which include unlawfully making an explosive.
Authorities claim in the complaint that Toro hired at least two students from October 2017 until January 2018 to dismantle fireworks for explosive powder at $50 an hour. The former teacher would then store the powder in containers.
His twin brother, Tyler Toro, also 27 and of the Bronx, has been arrested in the case.
The case grew out of a bomb threat called into a charter school in Harlem by students on Dec. 4, the Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said, citing the complaint.
An investigation ensued, and on Jan. 10, Christian Toro abruptly resigned from the school. Two days later, Tyler Toro returned his brother’s school-issued laptop, where a technician discovered “bomb-making instructions.”
Law enforcement obtained a search warrant and raided the Toros’ Bronx apartment on Thursday, and found “over 30 pounds of chemicals, which taken together in certain combinations, constituted explosive precursor materials,” officials said.
A handwritten diary was recovered, which officials said included notations about an “operation flash.”
The diary, according to the complaint, stated, among other things: “We are twin Toros strike us now, we will return with nano thermite” and “I am here100%, living, buy weapons. Whatever we need.”
A backpack belonging to Christian Toro was also allegedly recovered, containing an index card with a handwritten note, which read: “Under the full moon the small ones will know terror.”
The complaint said Christian Toro was arrested Jan. 31 on a charge of raping an individual under age 17.
It’s a felony rape in New York for someone over age 20 to have sex with someone under age 17. No details of that case could be found Thursday night in online court records.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
