EXCLUSIVE: Teenager Arrested in Japan for Making Lethal Explosive TATP

August 20, 2018

(UPDATE) Nagoya- Japanese police arrested a 19-year-old university freshman on Monday for allegedly making and possessing triacetate triperoxide, a lethal explosive known as TATP.

The teenager, a resident of Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, mostly admitted the allegations, saying that he was interested in bombs and wanted to make TATP to see its power, according to sources close to the investigation by the prefectural police department.

TATP is believed to be relatively easy to produce with chemical agents that are commercially available. The Islamic State militant group is said to use the explosive for terror attacks.

The man is suspected of producing some 57 grams of TATP at his home in Meito Ward around Dec. 22, 2016, and possessing some of the explosives at a park in the ward on March 19 this year in violation of the criminal regulations on explosives.

On the night of March 19, police received reports of a loud sound at the park and found a burn mark on the ground. Nobody was injured in the incident.

According to the sources, there were traces of black powder at the scene that appear to have been used for detonating the explosive but no trace of TATP was confirmed as the explosive vaporizes easily. TATP was detected in a container left at the scene.

"It is extremely dangerous to make TATP out of curiosity" because it, while in a dry condition, can explode even with slight friction, an explosives expert said. "A miserable result would be brought about if it is handled by an amateur."

The Nagoya man was served another arrest warrant on suspicion of producing and possessing erythritol tetranitrate, or ETN, in violation of the gunpowder control law.

The police department found some 9 grams of ETN during a raid on his home in April, in the first discovery of illegal ETN production in Japan. Jiji Press