By Nathaniel Hernandez, The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) -- A convicted counterfeiter with an apparent grudge against the courts was arrested Thursday on charges of plotting to blow up a federal courthouse, but he never actually had materials to make a truck bomb, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Gale William Mettles, 66, was arrested with a pickup truck and 1,500 pounds of fertilizer that he allegedly thought was volatile ammonium nitrate.
Nettles had been released from prison in 2003 in the counterfeiting case and apparently retained a grudge against the court system, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said.
Nettles was working alone, Fitzgerald said. The other people involved -- including those who delivered the non-dangerous fertilizer to Nettles on Wednesday -- were cooperating witnesses and federal agents, he said.
Authorities said Nettles targeted the Dirksen federal building in downtown Chicago, which houses federal criminal and civil courts and the U.S. attorney’s office.
“He had a rational plan to build a bomb. We weren’t going to wait to see if it would work,” Fitzgerald said.
While Nettles was not working with any other groups, Fitzgerald said, he had asked cooperating witnesses about contacting Al-Qaida and Hamas.
Ammonium nitrate is one of the most common farm fertilizers in the world, and instructions for turning it into a bomb are available on the Internet. A truck bomb of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168. There are other fertilizers that do not have as much explosive potential.