Crime & Safety

10 Years in Prison for Final Brecksville Bomb Plot Suspect

Joshua Stafford, one of five men who were self-proclaimed anarchist, was found guilty in June of a host of charges including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

The last man facing charges in plot to blow up the route 82 bridge in Brecksville has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Joshua Stafford, 25, of Cleveland, was sentenced to 10 years in jail with lifetime supervised release by the North District of Ohio federal court, according to Brecksville Patch news partner NewsNet5.

Stafford — one of five men who were self-proclaimed anarchists — was found guilty in June of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and malicious use of an explosive device to destroy property used in interstate commerce.

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“This defendant displayed callous disregard for our community, all in the name of making his own ideological views known, by operating a cell phone he believed to be the device that would detonate two IED devices on a highly traveled bridge,” said Stephen D. Anthony, FBI special agent in charge, in a news release.

Stafford and the small group considered numerous plots, eventually deciding to destroy the Route 82 Brecksville-Northfield bridge.

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