Jacob D. Miller, a 44-year-old convicted felon from Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to federal charges after authorities said he imported plutonium from Russia and sold it to about 67 customers across the United States and abroad.
Miller admitted guilt on five counts: being a felon in possession of ammunition, being a felon in possession of explosive materials, importing nuclear material without lawful authority, mailing hazardous materials, and possession of child pornography.
Fox News reported the account from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, which tied the plea to years of sales through his business and an online marketplace.
Federal agents arrested him on April 9, 2025. A grand jury indicted him on April 17. He has remained in federal custody since the arrest. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21.
This was not Miller’s first brush with the courts. On Feb. 9, 2004, a Massachusetts state court convicted him of possessing child pornography and possessing an explosive device.
He received seven years of probation in the child pornography case. In a separate case involving two counts of possessing an explosive device, he got 2½ years in jail and 10 years of probation.
After release, he started Collect The Periodic Table, known as CTPT. Through CTPT and the third-party retailer Bonanza, he sold element samples that included plutonium and thallium.
From Dec. 30, 2020, through March 31, 2025, he sold plutonium to about 67 customers in the United States and overseas. He imported the material from Russia to his Massachusetts residence and shipped it through the U.S. mail.
Thallium sales stretched longer. From Oct. 12, 2017, to April 5, 2025, about 71 customers bought thallium the same way. Federal rules bar mailing those hazardous substances. He did it anyway.
Federal prosecutors have been pressing other hard cases that put statutes back at the center of public safety. That same enforcement posture has shown up in recent DOJ charges against noncitizens accused of illegal voting across multiple states.
When investigators searched Miller’s Massachusetts residence in April 2025, they recovered bottles of explosive powder, numerous rounds of ammunition, and six firearms. As a convicted felon, he was barred from possessing them.
The devices seized carried a second set of charges. A laptop and a cell phone contained child sexual abuse material. Files had been opened as recently as the day before the search warrant, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
That mix, banned guns and explosives, prohibited nuclear material, and child sexual abuse material, shows how one defendant can stack federal offenses while living under the shadow of older state convictions.
Cases built on prior records and fresh federal counts keep landing in courtrooms. A Virginia Democratic operative drew a 10-year federal prison term after an FBI child sex abuse sting, another reminder that federal agents still close cases when the evidence is there.
Miller’s method was plain. He imported plutonium from Russia to his home. He listed samples through CTPT and Bonanza. He used the U.S. mail to move plutonium and thallium to buyers in the United States and abroad.
The sales windows were not short bursts. Thallium moved for more than seven years. Plutonium moved for more than four. Customer counts reached about 71 for thallium and about 67 for plutonium, per the U.S. attorney’s office account carried in the Fox News report.
No public accounting in that report named the buyers, described quantities per package, or said whether any customer faced separate charges. What it did establish is the span of the commerce and the shipping channel he chose.
Long-running schemes eventually meet federal process. In a different case, agents tracked a fugitive Rhode Island anesthesiologist captured on a sailboat after two decades on the run, proof that time alone does not erase exposure.
The 2004 Massachusetts convictions put Miller on probation for child pornography and on a jail-plus-probation track for explosive devices. Years later he was again tied to explosives, ammunition, firearms, nuclear material, hazardous mailing, and child sexual abuse material.
Arrest came on April 9, 2025. The residential search followed in April. The grand jury indictment landed on April 17. He stayed in federal custody. The plea covered all five listed counts. Sentencing is on the calendar for Jan. 21.
Photo materials tied to the case, credited to FBI Boston, included evidence such as a box of Federal American Eagle.45-caliber ammunition, one more marker of the firearms-related counts he faced as a prohibited person.
Federal courts keep sorting defendants with layered records. Another matter put a deported child predator back before a judge for a 20-year term after he sneaked into the country and targeted minors again.
The guilty pleas settle the five federal counts described by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts: felon in possession of ammunition, felon in possession of explosive materials, importing nuclear material without lawful authority, mailing hazardous materials, and possession of child pornography.
They do not, on the public account available here, spell out a full docket number, statutory citations, plea-deal fine print, or maximum penalties acknowledged in open court. The precise plea-entry calendar date is also not listed in that reporting. The sentencing date is set for Jan. 21, without a year attached in the same account.
City and street details for the Massachusetts residence were not published in the report. Customer identities and any harm claims tied to the shipments were not detailed either. What stands is the charging theory, the sales timelines, the Russian import path, the mail channel, the April 2025 search recoveries, and the custody status.
When fugitives and long-absent defendants finally face a judge, the system either works or it stalls. One recent example was a fugitive anesthesiologist who dropped a 20-year alias and faced a Rhode Island court after federal capture.
Miller’s path runs from a 2004 state conviction for child pornography and explosive devices, through years of element sales that included plutonium and thallium, to an April 2025 arrest and search that recovered guns, ammunition, explosive powder, and child sexual abuse material on personal devices.
He imported nuclear material from Russia without lawful authority. He mailed hazardous substances. He possessed firearms and ammunition as a felon. He possessed child pornography again. He pleaded guilty to each of those federal counts.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts put that record into a single case. FBI Boston materials accompanied the public presentation of recovered items. The defendant remains in federal custody pending sentencing.
Lawful residents should not have to wonder whether a felon with a child-pornography and explosives history can rebuild a side business shipping Russian plutonium through the mail. When federal prosecutors finally lock the file, the message is simple: the statutes were there the whole time, and they still apply.
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