About that "terror van" found in Brooklyn...

Hell on Wheels: Brooklyn van wired for carnage. It's starting to look like a case of your basic boom-boom lovin', nut bar - albeit a Chinese national one. (If he's Uighur, then I'm a bit more concerned. Doesn't sound like it though.)

A bomb-laden van found on a Brooklyn street by a car thief was wired to detonate by remote control, and had likely been sitting there for more than five months, sources said yesterday.

Investigators believe the homemade explosives found Thursday night in the Ford Econoline belonged to Yung Tang, 39, a Chinese national. He has been behind bars since he was caught Jan. 29 in Wallingford, Conn., with nearly identical bombs in his Mazda MPV minivan.

"Based on the manner in which the materials inside the van were constructed, it's possibly linked to an individual in custody in Connecticut," said one source. Also found in the MPV were two silencers, four hollow-point bullets and two radio-controlled detonators.

Days after that arrest, the NYPD searched his Brooklyn house and found yet another van - a Ford Explorer - full of similar explosive devices.

In May, Brooklyn prosecutors charged Tang with attempted murder for allegedly planting a bomb near the car of a commercial tenant he was trying to evict.

The victim lost his foot in the 2002 blast.

Sources said the homemade bombs inside the Econoline - made of Styrofoam cups, 10-ounce water bottles, cans of WD-40 and five-gallon jugs filled with gasoline - were rigged to go off via a remote car-door opener.

The 53rd Street location is six blocks from the home of Tang's estranged wife, whom he has threatened to kill, according to federal prosecutors. Neighbors of Tang's wife said she had sold the house last week. "I'm scared," said one resident. "I'm scared he's going to come back."
In papers filed in the Connecticut case, prosecutors said Tang's wife has complained of physical abuse and threats - including one to hurl her out the window of a cruise ship while they were on vacation.

Tang's lawyer, George Farkas, denied that there was a connection between his client and the van. "My guy has been in jail," said Farkas. "What that means, I don't know. It makes an interesting news story, but I think he has the alibi of alibis." The car thief was not expected to be charged.
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