Federal prosecutors have charged a 47-year-old Kahului man in connection with improvised explosive devices found around Maui in recent weeks. 

Robert Francis Dumaran is being held without bail at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu following his arrest on Saturday. The complaint was unsealed Tuesday.

Maui police and the FBI have been investigating the explosive devices since the first one was found on July 23 on Lono Avenue near Kahului Elementary School, according to a criminal complaint. The device contained explosive powder, a battery and shrapnel and was held together with clear packing tape. 

Similar devices were found on Aug. 7 near Ka’amana Street in Kula and some had detonated along the roadway. One, which was made out of a pipe and had been attached to a guardrail, damaged the guardrail and surrounding area, the complaint says.

The following day, a device detonated on Old Haleakala Highway near Aeloa Road in Pukalani, causing a nearby concrete container to explode and sending pieces of concrete flying into a Kia Sportage that was passing by. No one was injured.

A witness reported seeing a flash similar to lightning and felt the ground shake like an earthquake, the complaint says. 

Maui police had previously executed a search warrant at Dumaran’s residence in January 2022 and found custom fireworks, ammunition, controlled substances and other components that could be used to make homemade bombs, the complaint says. They also obtained his fingerprints. 

Two fingerprints lifted from the tape that was used to build the explosive device found on July 23 matched Dumaran’s. Investigators also found his cellphone had pinged off of cell towers in the vicinity of Kahului Elementary School that day as well as five miles west of Ka’amana Street on Aug. 5 — two days before devices were found there. 

On Aug. 6, his phone was used to send a text message saying, “Think I gotta go set off sum explosions… make me feel better,” the complaint says. It does not say who received the text.

Dumaran has two open state criminal cases from 2021 and 2020 involving promoting a dangerous drug and drug possession. The Maui Office of the Public Defender, which is representing him on those cases, declined to comment on his federal case. Federal court records do not list an attorney for him. 

Dumaran faces charges of possessing an unregistered destructive device and attempting to damage property by means of explosives, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 27.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.