PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – Craig T. Pope, 30, was sentenced to 8
years in federal prison today, consecutive to a state sentence currently being
served, after pleading guilty June 7 to mailing threatening communications and
threatened use of a weapon of mass destruction.
The sentence was announced by Christopher P. Canova, United States
Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
In April and May 2017, Pope, while serving a state prison
sentence for crimes out of Hillsborough County, sent two threatening letters
from the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution to a Hillsborough County judge who
presided over his plea and/or post conviction matters.
The first letter stated: “You have exactly 48 hours to get
me back in court or someone in your courtroom will die and not only that, there
will be an outbreak of anthrax in your courthouse who knows where I will send
it first . . . time is ticking.”
The second letter stated: “here is a gift of Anthrax and
when you receive this letter you will have exactly 4 hours before the
courthouse explodes. The bomb is already
in place, your security is no match to my brotherhood. Today you will understand that America will
never be as powerful as my ISIS Family.”
The letter contained a white powder, which triggered the Tampa Fire
Rescue Hazardous Materials Response Team to respond to the courthouse and
secure the evidence and potential weapon of mass destruction. Testing eventually provided a negative
response for a biothreat, but all security protocols were initiated for those
who could have been contaminated.
This case resulted from an investigation by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, and the Tampa Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney David L.
Goldberg prosecuted the case.
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