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PARKERSBURG -- A 42-year-old man has been charged with possession of an unregistered explosive device in connection with a series of incidents involving suspected explosives found on boats traveling the Ohio River.
Nathaniel Blayn Becker, no address listed, was arrested by federal agents Wednesday in Marietta, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. He is being held without bond in the South Central Regional Jail in Charleston.
The FBI, West Virginia State Police and other agencies have been investigating the matter since at least Oct. 21, when a portion of the river was closed to traffic after a homemade bomb was spotted on a barge traveling north on the river. A State Police bomb squad dismantled the device near the Pleasants-Tyler County line.
Five-mile stretches of the river were closed by the U.S. Coast Guard as safety zones early Tuesday and Wednesday morning for similar incidents near Williamstown and Marietta.
Read more in Friday’s edition of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.