Texas Pipe Bomb Maker to Spend Almost Five Years in Federal Prison

pipe bomb maker
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A federal judge in San Antonio has sentenced a pipe bomb maker to almost 5 years (57 months) in prison for manufacturing explosive devices in Texas. The 21-year-old man had been charged with the manufacture and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Federal District Court Judge David A. Ezra sentenced Michael Anthony Keich on Monday after he pleaded guilty to manufacturing three pipe bombs.

According to a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, the first bomb destroyed a motorcycle in Hondo, Texas, on February 27, 2014.

ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms) agents found another bomb on April 14, 2014 in a Hondo, Texas, motel parking lot.

FBI agents found a third bomb while executing a search warrant on May 2, 2014 at a home in Hondo.

As reported by the San Antonio Express-News, a Hondo man, Jacob Winkler, was arrested in May of 2014, and he told FBI that he obtained the three pipe bombs from Keich.

The media outlet reported that there was an investigation and Keich told a person cooperating with the FBI that he charged $150 for small pipe bombs, $200 for medium ones, and $300 for large bombs.

When they executed a search warrant in his home, federal officials also found something that looked like a pipe bomb, and materials used to produce explosive devices. The bomb was tested and found to be hoax bomb.

The pipe bomb maker is from D’Hanis, Texas. D’Hanis is in Medina County, Texas, which is part of the San Antonio metropolitan statistical area. The population of the town is approximately 550.

Keich faces three years of unsupervised release after he leaves prison.

This case was developed by investigators from the FBI along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, San Antonio Police Department Bomb Squad, Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, and the Medina County Sheriff’s Office.

Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2

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