JOHNANNESBURG — A 51-year-old man was arrested on Sunday in the small eastern Kern County town of Johannesburg, after he posted threatening remarks towards law enforcement on a popular social media site.
Todd Sloan, was booked into the Kern County Jail on charges of recklessly possessing explosives, possessing explosives, possessing explosive material and possessing a firearm as a prohibited person. His bail has been set at $2,000,000.
According to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, the incident began on January 7, when investigators received information that Sloan had made threats against local and federal law enforcement via Facebook.
“At that time, detectives investigated the allegations against Mr. Sloan and developed enough information to obtain a search warrant to search his person and residence,” Public Information Officer Ray Pruitt said. “However, before doing so, deputies located Mr. Sloan and he was arrested without incident.”
Sloan was said to have had a firearm on his person during his arrest, which occurred outside a Johannesburg gas station on January 9.
Later that day, deputies executed the search warrant at Sloan’s residence located in the 300 block of Buluwago Avenue in Johannesburg, where they said they discovered numerous improvised and commercial explosives in addition to “booby traps” throughout the home.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad with the assistance of the Bakersfield Police Department Bomb Squad and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were all called in to render the residence safe, which according to Pruitt will take several days.
