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Explosive devices found in Norwell shed

Police say 232 were stockpiled

Police have recovered more than 230 explosive devices from a shed in Norwell after a man admitted to stockpiling the ­devices there and detonating two of them near Route 53 in ­Hanover, according to a police report.

Jonathan Allen, 30, of ­Hanover had a not-guilty plea entered for him at his arraignment Monday in Hingham District Court on 23 counts of possession of an explosive device and two counts of detonating an explosive, a court clerk said.

The police report did not say why Allen was allegedly stockpiling the explosives.

Police spoke with Allen at his home on Tower Hill Circle Friday afternoon after receiving a tip that he was responsible for two explosions near Route 53 in March, a police report said.

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Allen admitted to police that he had one of the devices, a 4½-inch-long cardboard tube packed with explosive powder, at his home and that he had lit the fuse on two of the devices and thrown them out of his car window in March while driving on Pine Street near Route 53, Hanover Police Chief Walter Sweeney said.

During an interview with Hanover police, Allen told officers he had stored 50 more of the devices in a shed behind his parents’ home in Norwell, the report said. Norwell police and a State Police bomb squad executed a search warrant on the shed and found 232 explosives, the report said.

“Due to the amount of explosives, if, God forbid, there was a fire in the shed or an explosion, it could have resulted in serious injury,” Norwell Police Chief Theodore Ross said. “But it wasn’t a situation where we felt we had to evacuate neighbors.”

Members of the bomb squad disassembled 20 of the devices, separating the explosive powder from the cardboard tubes, and sent the components to a lab for testing, the report said. The bomb squad brought the remaining devices to a secure location in Norwell and detonated them, said Jennifer ­Mieth, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal.

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Hanover and Norwell police then located Allen at a Hanover home and arrested him, the ­report said.

He was ordered held without bail at his arraignment Monday.


Todd Feathers can be reached ­
at todd.feathers@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter
@ToddFeathers
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