Federal charges have been filed against a Missouri man accused of transforming social media platforms into a virtual classroom for bomb-making, following revelations that his online guides were allegedly utilized by the terrorist responsible for the deadly New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
Jordan Derrick, a 40-year-old resident of Sweet Springs, Missouri, was taken into custody by the FBI on Tuesday. Prosecutors claim he shared extensive video tutorials online, meticulously instructing viewers on how to construct explosives, detonators, and improvised explosive devices using hazardous chemical mixtures.
A criminal complaint, recently made public, indicates that Derrick spent months creating and distributing detailed, step-by-step videos that educated viewers on producing explosive materials such as TNT, PETN, and RDX. These compounds are notably linked to military-grade explosives and have been used in terror-related incidents.
Officials allege that Derrick began disseminating this content across various social media channels as early as September 2023, effectively establishing an online guide for creating homemade bombs.
The FBI has also released a new photograph of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the New Orleans terror suspect from Texas, accompanied by information regarding his digital search activities.
The complaint alleges Derrick demonstrated how to manufacture detonators and volatile explosive compounds, including nickel aminoguanidine perchlorate, ethylene glycol dinitrate, HMTD, hexamine dinitrate and ammonium nitrate mixtures capable of causing catastrophic damage.
Federal authorities say the videos eventually reached Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the ISIS-inspired terrorist responsible for the deadly Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans Jan. 1, 2025.
According to investigators, Jabbar downloaded Derrick’s publicly available bomb-making videos and used the tutorials to construct improvised explosive devices consistent with the methods shown online.
New Orleans police confront terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025. (New Orleans Police Department)
The FBI previously said Jabbar killed 14 people and injured dozens more after driving a rented Ford F-150 through packed New Year’s crowds in the French Quarter during the early morning hours of Jan. 1 before opening fire on police officers, who shot and killed him.
Authorities later recovered improvised explosive devices near Bourbon Street that failed to detonate and were ultimately rendered safe by bomb squads, a development prosecutors now say may have prevented an even deadlier mass casualty attack.
The FBI has said Jabbar became increasingly radicalized online in 2024 and researched ISIS propaganda, previous vehicle attacks and crowded New Orleans events in the months leading up to the massacre.
Investigators also said Jabbar traveled from Houston to New Orleans weeks before the attack, where he scoped out the French Quarter, researched balcony access points and used Meta smart glasses to secretly record video while biking through Bourbon Street.
Hours before carrying out the Bourbon Street massacre, investigators say, Jabbar researched the deadly Christmas market attack in Germany.
But prosecutors now believe Derrick’s alleged online explosives empire reached far beyond New Orleans.
Federal investigators say they also linked Derrick’s bomb-making tutorials to a separate explosion at a home in Odessa, Missouri, earlier this month.
According to the criminal complaint, investigators responding to the May 4 blast discovered suspected explosive components inside the residence. The homeowner allegedly told authorities he learned how to build explosive devices by watching online tutorial videos connected to Derrick’s social media accounts.
That explosion remains under investigation.
Derrick was charged with manufacturing explosive materials without a license, unlawfully possessing an unregistered destructive device and distributing information related to the manufacture of explosives.
If convicted, Derrick could face up to 20 years in federal prison on the charge of distributing information related to manufacturing explosives, along with two additional charges carrying maximum penalties of 10 years each. Federal inmates are not eligible for parole.
The FBI is leading the investigation alongside federal prosecutors and the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Derrick has not yet entered a plea.