Boston Police announced that they have arrested three new people connected to suspected Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
All three, roommates of Tsarnaev, will becharged with conspiring to obstruct justice and making false statements to law enforcement, Reuters reports, adding that they "decided to throw away Tsarnaev's backpack after learning he was suspect in Boston Marathon bombing."
Here's the full criminal complaint.
From NBC:
The trio spotted a backpack containing fireworks that had been emptied of their explosive powder and decided to take it, sources said. They also took a laptop because they didn't want to arouse the roommate's suspicions about the backpack, the sources said.
None of them have been connected to the pre-bombing planning or the detonation of the bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15.
One of the suspects is American Robel Phillipos, 19, of Cambridge, according to The Boston Globe.
The other two suspects are identified Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, 19, of Kazakhstan, according to CBS affiliate WBZ-TV.
Here's what we know about the two Kazachs:
- The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth told th AP that Tazhayakov is enrolled while Kadyrbayev was last a student in the fall but is no longer enrolled.
- A Boston attorney who represented the men told the AP that they were detained on April 20 on allegations that they violated their student visas.
- The attorney confirmed the suspects now face separate federal charges and have a federal court appearance related to the bombing case at 3:30 in Courtroom 19.
- A lawyer who was briefed on the case told ABC that the charges arose after Tsarnaev, 19, asked his friends to dispose of a backpack full of fireworks in his dorm room sometime after the bombings.
- Others say they grabbed a computer from his room. Last week officials were searching landfills near UMass Dartmouth for one of the Tsarnaevs' laptops.
- The two men lived at an off-campus apartment in New Bedford, about 60 miles south of Boston. The police raided an off-campus house in New Bedford on April 19.
- Kadyrbayev's license plate says "Terrorista #1." His lawyers said it was a joke.
- Here is what appears to be Kadyrbayev's Vkontakte (VK) social media page and Facebook page.
- Journalist Laura Rosen notes that Kadyrbayev "at least seems to have lied on his VK page that he's an MIT student, he's not, never was registered."
- Attorney Robert Stahl told CBS that they were drawn to Tsarnaev because he also spoke Russian. (The Tsarnaev brothers lived in Kyrgyzstan, which neighbors Kazakhstan.)
Here's a photo showing Kadyrbayev being detained:
NEW PHOTO: Dias Kadyrbayev, college friend of Dzohkhar Tsarnaev, being taken into custody on April 19 twitpic.com/cnetyu - @scottisaacs
— NewsBreaker(@NewsBreaker) May 1, 2013
Here's a photo, now deleted from from Tsarnaev's VK page, of Kadyrbayev and Tsarnaev:
In light of today's news, a New York Times report published on April 26 and titled "After Attack, Suspects Returned To Routines, Raising No Suspicions" is particularly interesting.
More to come as information becomes available.
SEE ALSO: Photo Shows Boston 'Suspect 2' Behind The 8-Year-Old Victim
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