Raymond Elders, Explosive Device Charges, New York 2026

WHITE PLAINS, New York – A White Plains man has been arrested and charged with manufacturing and possessing suspected improvised explosive devices in his apartment and detonating them on a residential street.

Raymond Elders, 65, was arrested by the FBI and presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy in White Plains federal court on March 31, 2026. He was detained.

As alleged in the complaint, Elders manufactured dozens of suspected explosive devices and stored them in his apartment. He then detonated them in his neighborhood in White Plains over a period of months, causing unexplained explosions that his neighbors repeatedly reported to the police.

The complaint alleges that Elders, a convicted felon, was captured on surveillance video on at least two occasions in March 2026 igniting suspected improvised explosive devices and tossing them onto Odell Avenue in White Plains. The FBI and White Plains Police Department responded to the scene and found an apparent pipe bomb on the steps of Elders’s apartment building.

A warrant-authorized search of Elders’s apartment returned at least approximately 25 suspected explosive devices, in addition to materials and supplies Elders allegedly used to assemble explosive devices. Law enforcement evacuated all residents of the apartment building while FBI explosives specialists secured the scene.

Elders is charged with one count of use of a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; one count of possession of destructive devices after a felony conviction, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; as well as one count of receipt and possession of explosives after a felony conviction, one count of unlawful possession of destructive devices, and one count of unlawful manufacture of destructive devices, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI New York Field Office and the White Plains Police Department, stating that Elders’s alleged actions repeatedly disregarded the public’s safety by subjecting innocent bystanders to potentially devastating harm.

Elders will be held in custody pending his arraignment and trial. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

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