A Springfield man pleaded not guilty in federal court last week to possessing an illegal pipe bomb on Valley Street, the site of three shootings in the last two months.
Police said they discovered the bomb in the bedroom of Anibal Castro Jr., 33, on April 6.
Court documents indicate that Springfield police and state police were executing a search warrant because Castro’s father, Anibal Castro Sr., had allegedly “fired shots at a male subject in relation to a potential drug related dispute” in which the victim was not hit by the bullets.
Castro Sr. is not facing any charges, according to the Windsor County State’s Attorney’s Office.
While inside the home at 77 Valley St., police said they discovered a 10-inch long bomb, emblazoned with “BYE BYE!!” The state police bomb squad subsequently joined the scene.
According to court documents, the device, made of aluminum, had a green fuse sticking out of one end.
Castro Jr. told police he created the device using information from the internet, and he had set off similar devices in bodies of water in Rhode Island, the court documents indicate. His girlfriend had written the ominous note, he told police.
State police requested assistance in disassembling the bomb from Scott Murphy, a special agent bomb technician and certified explosives specialist with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and author of the affidavit written in support of the charge. Murphy said he later discovered roughly 650 BBs, as well as “energetic powder,” inside the pipe.
According to Murphy’s statement to the court, “Based on my training and experience, BBs are usually added to a device to further weaponize it by making it more lethal.”
Castro Jr. told police that he had made the device in Vermont from materials obtained at hardware stores.
In a detention hearing earlier this month, Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle recounted Castro’s extensive criminal history, which includes possession of heroin with intent to distribute, assault and battery on a police officer, and assault and battery on a corrections officer.
Doyle indicated that Castro was a longtime resident of Springfield, Massachusetts, and that “the pretrial services officers’ investigation did not reveal any independent information to document Mr. Castro’s residential ties to Vermont.”
Citing a pretrial services report, Doyle said Castro told authorities he had lived on Valley Street with his fiancee for the last five months.
The streak of violence in the area has frustrated the understaffed Springfield Police Department and frightened neighbors.
Interstate 91 connects Springfield, Massachusetts, with Springfield, Vermont, and is considered by many in the law enforcement and substance use recovery fields to be a primary path for drug trafficking in New England, which they link to violent crime.
Mark Fountain, the police chief in Springfield, Vermont, said his department had not had contact with Castro Jr. before finding the bomb.
Due to Castro’s “concerning history of violence, drug distribution activity and violations of probation,” the judge granted a motion to detain Castro while awaiting further court action. He is being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Newport.
