Two men used homemade explosives to create large craters behind a Warrington township shopping center, police say

Two men were arrested in Warrington township after prosecutors say they used homemade explosives to blow a two-foot wide crater in a field behind a shopping center.

Vladimir Nostachev, 47, of Bustleton, and Vadim Pokusov, 40, of Warminster, have been charged with weapons of mass destruction, possession of explosive material, conspiracy, and related offenses. They are both being held in lieu of $1 million bail, court records show. There was no indication either man had hired an attorney.

The motive behind the explosions remained unclear Monday. Preliminary hearings for the two men have been scheduled for later this month.

Police first encountered Nostachev and Pokusov just before 4 a.m. Sunday, while responding to reports of fireworks going off near the Valley Square Shopping Center on Main Street, according to the affidavit of probable cause for their arrests.

While patrolling the area, one of the responding officers heard an explosion, he said. He heard a second explosion not long after, and drove toward the shopping center to investigate, the affidavit said.

As the officer approached the center, he saw a Lexus SUV backing up and turning around in the parking lot, and noticed a “large plume of smoke that extended as high as the trees” in a wooded area behind the building, the affidavit said. The officer sped up to pursue the vehicle, and smelled gun powder as he got closer to it.

Nostachev was driving the vehicle, with Pokusov in its passenger seat, according to the affidavit. During a search of the SUV, the officers noticed two homemade explosives, one the size of a soda bottle and the other similar in size and shape to a softball. The officers also found a plastic bag filled with what appeared to be bottle rockets.

The officers called in bomb disposal officers from Philadelphia to inspect and handle the devices. They later determined that the homemade explosives were made of cardboard and filled with magnesium powder, sometimes called flash powder, which is a highly volatile explosive.

After the devices were secured, the officers inspected the area where the smoke plume was first spotted. They discovered a large crater blown into the earth about two feet wide, with a debris field stretching about 55 feet, according to the affidavit. A bomb-disposal dog detected the presence of explosive powder in the area.

The arrests were reminiscent of similar criminal activity at the opposite end of the county a few years ago. For several months during the spring and summer of 2018, David Surman Jr. detonated homemade explosions late at night throughout Upper Bucks County.

Surman, the owner of a chemical company near Quakertown, was arrested after an extended manhunt that included FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents.

» READ MORE: Bucks County bomber and his girlfriend admit launching homemade explosives in 2018

Residents in the rural tip of the county had complained for months of mysterious late-night explosions. Surman and his girlfriend, Tina Smith, would drive around after dusk, lighting the devices and throwing them out of the window of Smith’s SUV. One of the devices didn’t detonate right away and nearly injured a township public works employee who was mowing grass.

Surman pleaded guilty in 2020 to possession and manufacturing of a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy, as well as criminal use of a communication facility and unlawful use of a computer for a large cache of child pornography detectives found on an external hard drive while investigating the bombs.

He was incarcerated in county jail for two years, and is currently serving a 10-year probation term. Smith also pleaded guilty to possession of explosive materials and was sentenced to 4½ years of probation.