Officials: Threat suspect tried to skip drug test

One of the suspects accused of making multiple bomb threats at Monroe County Courthouse was trying to avoid a drug test for probation on drug offenses, detectives said Wednesday.

Investigators looking into repeated bomb threats at Monroe County Courthouse were back on Wednesday at the lake where the suspects are believed to have made the calls.

With suspects Colleen Kasdaglis and Jesus Castrodad in jail on charges of making multiple threats, a dive team searched Tobyhanna Lake on Wednesday for disposable phones dumped in the lake.

Kasdaglis and Castrodad were arrested on Tuesday after Kasdaglis was found driving a car seen near the lake when one of the calls was made.

Brian Webbe, a detective with the Monroe County District Attorney’s office, said the pair are believed to be responsible for eight separate bomb threats made to the courthouse between July and Nov 6.

Webbe said that following interviews with the suspects, investigators decided to search the lake to see if they could recover the disposable phones believed to have been used to make the threats.

“We were up at the lake today with a dive recovery team attempting to recover some of the cellphones from the lake which they used to make the calls,” he said.

He said the interviews confirmed their suspicion that the lake was chosen so they could easily destroy the evidence. The calls were made on disposable phones, and pinged to a location on the lakefront.

The dive team was able to recover most of the phones used to make the threats.

The phones they used are available for sale at Walmart without any sort of cellphone plan or required ID. Customers can buy a phone and a prepaid card with minutes to use with the phone. In this case the suspects are believed to only have bought the phones with the sole purpose of making calls to 911 to threaten the courthouse.

Webbe said that during interviews, the suspects confirmed that at least one of their bomb threats to the courthouse was motivated by fears of an upcoming drug test. On the day of the alleged threat, Castrodad had a meeting with his probation officer and feared he would be drug tested. The suspects reportedly admitted to using drugs regularly.

“That was their way of avoiding the urine test, at least one of the times that was the motivation,” he said.

Police are still trying to figure out who made two other bomb threats on the courthouse back in May.

Castrodad and Kasdaglis are currently jailed on $1 million bail. Preliminary hearings have been scheduled for later this month.