This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Tremonton man has been charged in federal court with making a bomb.
John Huggins was already known to police in February, when a tipster told them Huggins had threatened to blow up his Bible study group and said he had buried bombs in Ogden, agents wrote in charges filed Friday. At that point, the Cache County bomb squad already had detonated multiple devices Huggins created, and SWAT officers had found notebooks logging the activities of the Tremonton Police Department.
As police and federal agents investigated Huggins' alleged threats against his Bible group, an informant provided digital instructions, purchased from Huggins, that showed how to make drugs, explosives and booby traps.
An agent posed as a customer and approached Huggins, investigators wrote. Huggins showed the undercover agent a video of himself blowing up a vehicle and offered to make a bomb for the agent.
The informant confirmed that Huggins was producing shrapnel for a bomb, and in July had completed a "pipe bomb with blue glue on it," police wrote. The 4-inch-long device was made from a PVC glue can packed with shrapnel and a 5-hour energy drink bottle to contain explosives.
At a follow-up meeting, Huggins sold detailed bomb-making instructions to the undercover agent and told the agent about his pipe bombs, investigators wrote. Huggins was arrested, and the pipe bomb was inspected. Although the chamber for the explosives was empty, there were chemicals inside Huggins' trailer that could be used to detonate the bomb, investigators wrote. A technician compared the bomb to a grenade.
Huggins was charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device.