Three arrested for allegedly helping suspect after Boston bombings

The Washington Post -- 1 May 2013

Video: Three more suspects have been taken into custody in the marathon bombings, city police said Wednesday. The police department made the announcement in a tweet Wednesday morning, saying more details would follow.

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By Sari Horwitz, Updated: Wednesday, May 1, 12:40 PM

Three college students have been arrested on suspicion of assisting one of the two suspects following the Boston Marathon bombings, according to law enforcement officials.

The three were identified as friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who has been charged with carrying out the bombings along with his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26. The younger brother was a student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, the same school attended by the students at various points in recent months, according to authorities.

Two federal law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing inquiry, said the three disposed of material, which ended up at a Boston area landfill, at the request of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev following the bombings. One official said the unspecified material may have been thrown into a dumpster on or near the campus and that the dumpster subsequently was emptied at the landfill.

The Boston Police Department said Wednesday that the three suspects were arrested in connection with the bombing, but it did not identify them or provide further details.

“First and foremost, there is no threat to public safety,” the department said in a statement. It said that “additional details will be provided when they become available.”

Last week, federal investigators searched a landfill at New Bedford, Mass., after a tip that evidence had been left there.

The Tsarnaev brothers were at large for four days after the April 15 bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 250. The elder brother was killed in a shootout with police in the early morning hours of April 19, and the younger brother was captured that evening. He faces charges that potentially carry the death penalty.

The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation by Boston law enforcement and the FBI into the bombings. Federal law enforcement officials have said in recent days that they were focused on several “persons of interest” in the United States and Russia.