SC prison inmate, accomplice found guilty of mail-bomb plot in FBI's 'dark web' sting
A federal jury in Columbia has found an S.C. prison inmate and an accomplice guilty of conspiring to order a mail-order bomb over the internet to kill the prisoner's ex-wife.
The case was the result of an FBI domestic counter-terrorism operation dubbed "Operation Boom Box."
After a four-day trial in the Columbia federal courthouse, jurors deliberated less than two hours Thursday night before finding inmate Michael Young, 32, and Vance Volious, 36, of Columbia, guilty in a complex conspiracy involving a thriving marijuana smuggling business and a mail-order bomb, officials said Friday.
Young thought he was buying a mail-order bomb from a Russian or Eastern European arms dealer that he had contacted on the internet's secretive "dark web." Instead, he was communicating online with an undercover FBI agent, and the bomb sent to a friend's house was a fake.
Young wanted to kill his ex-wife, whom he had tried to kill in a 2007 shooting at the Columbiana Centre mall. Instead, Young shot his ex-wife's father to death in that incident and was sentenced to 50 years in state prison by a Lexington County jury.
Young and Volious could be sentenced to up to 45 years in prison each. However, U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs put off sentencing until a later date.
Young testified Thursday that both he and Volious were involved in the drug smuggling operation in which about 6 pounds of marijuana were shipped to Columbia from California once a month. But, Young said, Volious was not involved in the bomb plot.
Volious did not testify.
But the jury believed the version of events presented by assistant U.S. Attorneys Jay Richardson and Will Lewis, who said Young's testimony simply was an attempt to absolve his friend Volious from the bomb conspiracy.
Testimony in the trial illustrated the ease with which an S.C. prison inmate can use an illegally obtained cellphone to access the internet and its dark web, set up a drug smuggling ring operated from inside a prison and carry out a murder plot.
The trial also served up details of a little-glimpsed but sophisticated FBI counter-terrorism operation. There, online undercover FBI agents masquerade as criminals and operate virtual internet stores offering illegal wares.
In other cases, online undercover agents have snared child pornographers. In this case, testimony showed the FBI also has undercover agents posing as arms dealers pretending to be from Russia or the Eastern bloc.
On Monday, the federal jury heard from "Marcus," an online undercover FBI agent who was on the dark web in early 2017, pretending to be an arms dealer selling grenades and other high explosives.
The dark web is the internet's seamy underbelly, a place frequented by drug dealers, child pornographers, arms dealers and others who buy and sell illicit wares in markets similar to Amazon and eBay, according to trial testimony.
In February 2017, Young was on the dark web, too, using search engines to try to find someone to buy explosives from and make a bomb to be mailed to kill his ex-wife, who lived in Florida.
Young happened upon "Marcus." Then, over a period of weeks — using encrypted emails and other digital communication devices — the two had numerous conversations.
Marcus agreed to mail Semtex, a plastic explosive, and booby trap a package that would explode when the recipient opened it. Young emailed Marcus the addresses of two Columbia-area accomplices, as well as the address of the intended victim.
Once Marcus had the addresses, the FBI activated surveillance squads of agents and two airplanes to keep an eye on Young's out-of-prison accomplices, as well as the intended victim.
FBI scientists also put together a phony booby-trapped bomb and mailed it. The bomb had traces of explosive chemicals — enough to legally make it an explosive — but could not explode.
Young's drug-smuggling operation was uncovered by chance.
As FBI agents interviewed a Young accomplice to whom Marcus had shipped the fake bomb, that accomplice, Vincent Meredith, 17, of Irmo, told agents that Young was operating a drug smuggling ring from inside prison. Young was having two 3-pound boxes of marijuana shipped to him each month for distribution locally, Meredith told the agents.
Charges against Meredith are pending.
Numerous state and local law agencies worked with the FBI in the case, said Alphonso Norris, special agent in charge of the FBI's Columbia office.
This story was originally published April 20, 2018 at 1:34 PM with the headline "SC prison inmate, accomplice found guilty of mail-bomb plot in FBI's 'dark web' sting."