Halethorpe Man Pleads Guilty To Threatening NSA And Its Employees
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A 38-year-old Halethorpe man pleaded guilty Tuesday to threatening to blow up the National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade and shoot government employees, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Ryan Matthew Conlon was sentenced to three years of probation, including six months of home detention.
On Dec. 29, 2021, a caller to the FBI tip line claimed an individual had built a bomb in his basement and was going to blow up the intelligence agency's headquarters on New Year's Day and kill the Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the NSA director, federal prosecutors said.
The caller also said this person would shoot NSA employees and was a security threat.
The FBI traced the call to Conlon's phone number. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Conlon had made several threats against the NSA earlier in the year.
On New Year's Eve, another call came in to the FBI "warning that a truck with bombs inside was ready to go to the White House and that there was child pornography in the truck," and provided a Maryland license plate on the vehicle, federal prosecutors said. That call was also traced to Conlon.
Upon his arrest by authorities, Conlon admitted he "might have made the threatening" calls, prosecutors said.
