A YouTuber with more than a million subscribers was arrested for recording tutorials for making explosives on his parents’ farm

The detainee was dedicated to the illegal manufacture of explosive and incendiary mixtures and devices based on precursors and other chemical substances, and at the same time, recorded tutorial videos showing step by step the process of making it and their destructive effects. He later published all the content on his YouTube channel, which has more than a million subscribers.

In total, the youtuber published more than 60 of these tutorial videos in which he not only explained in detail the process of manufacturing explosive and incendiary mixtures and devices, but also artisanal weapons such as a flamethrower; also showing their destructive effects.

More than 106 million views

The investigation began when specialists in arms and explosives trafficking from the Civil Guard Information Service detected the illegal content that was being published on the aforementioned YouTube channel, which posed a serious risk to citizen security due to the danger that some of the millions of people who had viewed their tutorial videos would try to manufacture those same explosives for illicit purposes, even by people linked to violent, radical or terrorist organizations.

In fact, in 2022, within the framework of Operation ‘Boxes’, An individual was arrested in the province of Pontevedra for illegal manufacturing of explosives, who was finally sentenced for those events to one year and six months in prison. The analysis of that individual’s computer devices revealed that to manufacture the explosives that were seized, he had followed the video tutorials published by the now-detained YouTuber.

The detainee recorded tutorial videos on the manufacture of explosives on a farm family property located near a residential areato an industrial estate and a forest area, with the real danger of accidental explosion and the consequent risk to his own life, that of his relatives and his neighbors, of material damage and fire that this entails.

The videos published by the detainee on his YouTube channel could be used by third parties to make their own mixtures and homemade devices, and even by terrorist or criminal organizations to perpetrate their violent actions, with the serious risk that this entails for citizen security; especially when your videos They have more than 106 million views.

Mixtures with the reactant substance thermite

To create one of the videos recently published on his YouTube channel, the detainee manufactured more than 30 kilos of incendiary mixture called thermite, which he immediately afterwards used to completely destroy a vehicle on a farm he owned, near a forest area of ​​high ecological value, with the obvious risk of fire that this entailed; also denying access to the fire crews who came to put out the fire. These last events that motivated the beginning of a parallel investigation by Seprona of Cantabria.

The aforementioned “thermite” incendiary mixture It is extremely dangerous, reaching a temperature of more than 2,500ºC that is capable of melting any type of metal, which is why it is used from legal applications such as welding and joining railway rails to illegal uses such as opening holes in boxes. forts and vaults.

In another of his videos he explained how to make homemade Napalm and a flamethrower with which to use it, demonstrating the effectiveness and scope of the device. After the investigation, it was possible to identify the author of said videos and locate the place where he had installed the clandestine workshop where he manufactured these explosive and pyrotechnic mixtures, and the farm where he recorded the videos.

In total, two entries and searches have been carried out in these places, during which interventions were carried out. more than 20 kilos of chemicals for the illegal manufacture of explosives, as well as various computer material for your study. Given the dangerous nature of the chemicals involved, the Civil Guard’s Explosive Deactivation Technicians (TEDAX) had to act, taking charge of them for analysis and destruction. With this intervention, not only has the detainee been prevented from continuing to illegally manufacture these explosive and incendiary mixtures and publishing video tutorials on how to do it step by step; But the risk has also been avoided for the relatives who lived on the property and the neighbors of the neighboring properties in the event of an explosion or accidental or uncontrolled fire during its handling or during the recording of the videos. So far this year, there have already been six operations carried out by the Information Service of the Civil Guard against the illegal manufacture of explosives based on precursors.