Boston bomber Dzhokar's sickening 'lol' text to his three college friends after they told him his face was 'all over TV'... as they are arrested for throwing out his backpack to help cover his tracks



Three taken into custody helped Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cover up for the bombing after the fatal blasts

Two identified as Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both Kazakh nationals who were in custody already on immigration issues



Third suspect named as Robel Phillipos of Cambridge, Massachusetts

All three are 19-years-old, the same age as Dzhokhar



Three 'disposed of materials for the bomber at a landfill after attack'



Boston police say there is no threat to public safety



Three friends of the younger Boston Marathon bombing suspect were arrested on Wednesday and charged with conspiring to both destroy evidence and lie to investigators after it was revealed that they took a backpack of fireworks and a laptop from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dorm room.

The criminal complaint lays out the series of events that led to the bomber’s three friends- Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, who are both Kazakh nationals, and an American named Robel Phillipos- arrest on Wednesday.



The two Kazakh students were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by destroying evidence while Phillipos is charged with knowingly and willfully making false statements to investigators.

All three have waived their bail hearings, agreeing to remain in jail without bail until their next hearing.

The two Kazakh nationals, who were charged with destroying evidence but not lying to a federal officer, face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The American, Robel Phillipos, faces up to eight years behind bars because of his charge of making false statements to officials in a terrorism investigation, along with a $250,000 fine.

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Arrested: Azamat Tazhayakov, one of the three charged with helping bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cover his tracks, was taken into custody by police on April 19 (pictured) relating to immigration charges but formally arrested today

Questioning: Dias Kadyrbayev (pictured on April 19) reportedly told officers that he was the one to suggest taking the laptop from the bombing suspect's dorm room

Alarm bells: The friends said that they became concerned that Tsarnaev actually had something to do with the bombings when they found these empty firework containers in his dorm room Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were already in police custody at the time of their arrest and had been for over a week because they were previously questioned about their license plate that reads ‘TERRORISTA#1’. Authorities then held them on immigration issues because they are in the country illegally after their academic visas expired.

The nature of these charges suggests that none of these young men helped plan the fatal Marathon bombing, which left three dead and more than 200 injured, but they did work to cover Tsarnaev’s tracks from investigators and evade capture.

The detailed criminal complaint goes through the timeline of events according to each of the 19-year-olds, all of whom met Tsarnaev when they started school at UMASS-Dartmouth in the same semester in the fall of 2011.

Like many throughout Boston, none of the three boys had any inkling that Tsarnaev was involved until the FBI released pictures of the two suspects, later identified as 19-year-old Dzhokhar and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan.

Friends in low places: Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov (left and center) were identified as the two friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (right) who have been held in Boston jail since April 20

The American: Robel Phillipos, who was identified as this student by CNN, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with making false statements to police and obstructing justice in a terrorism investigation

On the same day that the FBI released pictures and video clips of the Tsarnaev brothers at the bomb scene, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov removed items from the younger bomber's dorm room.

That was just two days before the FBI searched the room.

The criminal complaint lists that they removed Dzhokhar's backpack from his room and 'agreed to get rid of it after concluding from news reports that Tsarnaev was one of the Boston Marathon bombers.'

Prison: The maximum sentence for Robel Phillipos' charge of lying to federal officers, is eight years in jail as opposed to the other suspects who face five years

The three friends- Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov and Phillipos- went over to Tsarnaev's on-campus dormitory after seeing the news reports.



When the group arrived at the dorm, Kadyrbayev showed Tazhayakov a text from the bomber that said 'I'm about to leave if you need something in my room take it.'

He did not specify where he was going, but Tazhayakov told investigators that he felt that this meant he would never see Tsarnaev alive again.

They were let in the room by Dzhokhar's roommate, who said that Dzhokhar had been there just a few hours earlier.

The criminal complaint says that when there, the three friends watched a movie.

Kadyrbayev 'knew when he saw the empty fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the Marathon bombing.

Tazhayakov was more alarmed because the tubes had been emptied but not destroyed, meaning that Tsarnaev could have either used the explosives or planned to use them.



Kadyrbayev found Vaseline in the room, which he told the others Tsarnaev used to make bombs.

Charged: Dias Kadyrbayev, left, and Azamat Tazhayakov, right, appeared in court together and waived their right to a bail hearing, meaning that they will remain in the jail until their next hearing on May 14

At one point in the police interviews, Tazhayakev said that during a meal a month before the attack, Tsarnaev told he and Kadyrbayev that he knew how to make a bomb.



Kadyrbayev was reportedly the one who 'decided to remove the backpack from the room in order to help his friend Tsarnaev avoid trouble.'

In a slightly unexpected explanation, Kadyrbayev says that he took Dzhokhar's laptop because he did not want to the roommate to think that he was 'stealing or behaving suspiciously by just taking the backpack'.

Though the release of the photos is the first time that alarm bells went off in the students’ minds, it is not the first time that they interacted with the bomber since Monday April 15.

Close: Azamat Tazhayakov, seen here with bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in an undated picture, told police that about a month before the Marathon attack, Dzhokhar said that he knew how to make a bomb

Texts: When the group arrived at the dorm, Dias Kadyrbayev (left) showed Tazhayakov (right) a text from the bomber that said 'I'm about to leave if you need something in my room take it'

Happier times: Kadyrbayev told investigators that he suggested they take Tsarnaev's backpack and his laptop from the room, and later was the one to throw it in the garbage at his off-campus apartment

Both Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov- who shared an apartment in New Bedford- spent time with Tsarnaev two days after the bombing.



Dzhokhar met with Kadyrbayev briefly, where Kadyrbayev noted that Dzhokhar 'appeared to have given himself a short haircut'.

Tazahayakov told police that he spent more time with Tsarnaev earlier that same day, when Tsarnaev drove him to his off-campus apartment after class and then they spent time hanging out in the apartment.

Hunting for clues: The students reportedly disposed of materials for Dzhokhar at the garbage can at their house, which was transported to the Crapo Hill landfill, just nine miles from the UMass-Dartmouth campus

First suspects: Brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were identified as the first suspects

During multiple interviews, Phillipos lied about various parts of the story- at first saying that he never went to Tsarnaev's dorm room, then saying that they didn't remove anything, then saying that they went to the dorm but it was locked and they never entered.

After repeating false versions of the same story, he recanted his previous testimony in the fourth interview on April 26.

The gravity of the situation did not appear to hit Phillipos until after the trio returned to the off-campus apartment and they 'started to freak out, because it became clear from a CNN report that we were watching that Jahar was one of the Boston Marathon bombers.'

The Boston police were the first to announce the arrests via Twitter, and they followed up their initial tweet by confirming that there is no threat to public safety.

Police initially investigated Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov after the discovery of their license plates (pictured)

The news of the arrests comes one day after the elder suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife Katherine Russell was interviewed by investigators after they spent hours searching her home.

FBI official first linked the bombings to brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, releasing photos of the pair last Thursday, three days after the fatal blast killed three and injured more than 250 people at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.



They were able to confirm the identity of the two after the photos were released, and later that evening Tamerlan died after an altercation with police where he opened fire on officers and his younger brother ended up driving over him in the getaway car.



College friends: The first reports claim that the three people in custody all went to college with Dzhokhar at UMass Dartmouth and were thought to have helped him cover up for the bombings after the fact

Dzhokhar was arrested the following day after a city-wide manhunt lead to his discovery inside a boat in Watertown, Massachusetts.



Dzhokhar was arrested and transported to an area hospital where he remains in police custody.

