{"id":207859,"date":"2026-03-27T04:14:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207859\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T04:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:14:31","slug":"brother-sister-alen-ann-mary-zheng-charged-after-explosive-device-found-outside-macdill-air-force-base-in-tampa-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207859\/","title":{"rendered":"Brother, sister Alen, Ann Mary Zheng charged after explosive device found outside MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  &#8212; A man who fled to China and his sister have been charged after an explosive device was left outside a gate at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Alen Zheng, 20, and Ann Mary Zheng, 27, were charged Wednesday in separate federal indictments. The sister is in custody, while the brother has fled, according to a social media post by FBI director Kash Patel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Alen Zheng is charged with of attempting to damage government property, unlawfully making a destructive device and possessing an unregistered destructive device. The indictment specifically mentions the package found at MacDill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Ann Mary Zheng is charged with witness tampering and being an accessory after the fact in Alan Zheng&#8217;s case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">SEE ALSO: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/shelter-place-issued-explosion-valero-facility-port-arthur-police-say\/18758516\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shelter-in-place lifted after explosion at Valero oil facility in Texas, police say<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Online court records didn&#8217;t list an attorney for either person.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A suspicious package was found outside MacDill on March 16, prompting the FBI to investigate. The U.S. Central Command is located at MacDill and is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South Asia. MacDill is one of the U.S. bases that has been on heightened alert since the war in Iran began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Another man was arrested earlier this week on charges of making threatening phone calls to the base days after the device was discovered, though investigators haven&#8217;t accused that caller of planting any devices. There was no immediate connection between the caller and the Zhengs.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. &#8212; A man who fled to China and his sister have been charged after an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[95250,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-207859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-95250","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}