NEW HAVEN — A 38-year-old man arrested after police discovered a pipe bomb, shotguns, gas masks and other items inside his Mercedes late Tuesday was arrested earlier this year on bombmaking charges in East Haven.
John Iannucci was held at New Haven police headquarters for most of the day on a host of weapons and explosives charges. The arrest could likely complicate the situation on his current court case.
He is due to appear in court on Oct. 22 on the East Haven charges of illegal possession of explosives and illegal bomb manufacturing. He was free on $25,000 bail when he and a second man, identified as Jessup Bollinger, 27, were detained Tuesday night in the city’s Fair Haven section.
"Nobody knows their motive" for having the pipebomb, said police spokesman Joe Avery, "or what they were intending to do with it."
The bomb squad blew up the homemade device early Wednesday.
Police received an anonymous call Tuesday night about a car containing rifles in the area of Grand and Clinton avenues and officers responding to the scene found Iannucci’s Mercedes parked on Clinton Avenue. Officers observed ammunition in plain view and ordered the occupants out at gunpoint.
A search subsequently revealed two shotguns, gas masks, costume-quality SWAT gear, a propane tank and one pipe bomb, which prompted the bomb squad call out.
A four-block area was closed off as a precaution but no evacuations were reported.
The incident Tuesday night was reminiscent — at least insofar as there allegedly was a bomb in Iannucci’s car — of an incident in East Haven this February.
Police records in that case suggest Iannucci was driving around East Haven with homemade explosive device, throwing them out the car window and blowing up stop signs. Police say Iannucci almost accidentally blew himself up in February. He claimed to police that he was stopped at a stop light on North High Street when an unknown individual threw something into his car. When he picked it up to throw it back out, it blew up, he told police.
Evidence showed differently, a detective concluded, and Iannucci was charged with the bomb and explosive charges. At the time, he lived on Anne Street in East Haven but New Haven police say he now lists an address in Branford.
Court records did not list an attorney of record Iannucci in that case.
Ira Grudberg represents Bollinger in an unrelated case out of East Haven and said Wednesday that he would file an appearance to represent the 27-year-old in this new case. He said he didn’t have enough information yet to comment.
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/10/07/news/doc4acc85f7019c1251918689.txt
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Topic: Car Full of Explosives Stopped in New Haven; Area Cordoned Off (Read 2429 times)