A 33-year-old man from the rural Jefferson County hamlet of La Fargeville is being held in federal custody after allegedly threatening two FBI agents who showed up at his home to question him about antisemitic phone calls made to a Jewish charity months earlier. Dylan Daniell was arraigned Friday, October 9, 2026, in Syracuse on a charge of threatening a federal law enforcement officer, and a judge ordered him held pending further proceedings.
According to Fingerlakes1.com, the case traces back to May 2026, when a nonprofit Jewish charity received several calls from a man threatening mass violence against Jews. Per a criminal complaint cited in a U.S. Department of Justice press release, the caller said, “I would like to blow up Israel and kill all the Jews,” and “I would like to put all the Jews in a gas chamber and kill them.” Prosecutors identified Daniell as the likely user of the phone number tied to those calls, though he has not been charged over the charity calls themselves.
A Doorstep Confrontation Turns Into Federal Charges
On October 7, two FBI special agents went to Daniell's La Fargeville home to interview him about the charity calls, the station's report notes. When the agents identified themselves, Daniell allegedly told them, “only good cop is a dead cop,” and warned them to “get the f--- out of here before I pull something out on you,” according to the Justice Department's account.
About four hours after the agents left the property, one of them received a text message from Daniell's phone number reading in part, “You ever come to my house again you will not like it. That's not a threat that's a promise . . . .” That digital follow-up, federal prosecutors say, became central evidence supporting the threat charge beyond the verbal confrontation at the door.
Statutory Penalties and Prosecutorial Reaction
The charge against Daniell, threatening a federal law enforcement officer under 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(B), carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release, per the same account. The article notes that statutory maximums are not a predicted sentence, and any sentence would ultimately be determined by a judge if Daniell is convicted.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III, speaking after the arraignment, said, “threatening law enforcement officers is not a joke, it is not something that we will brush aside, and it will not be tolerated,” according to the Justice Department statement released alongside the FBI's Albany Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew McCrobie is prosecuting the case, and the FBI is investigating with assistance from New York State Police, the Fingerlakes1.com report states.
Rural Hamlet North of Watertown
La Fargeville, where Daniell lives, is an unincorporated rural hamlet in the town of Orleans in northern Jefferson County, with a population of roughly 500 to 650 residents situated north of Watertown, according to Wikipedia. Daniell remains in custody pending a detention hearing set for Thursday, October 15, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mitchell Katz, who will decide whether he stays jailed as the case proceeds.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Threat Prosecutions
The case adds to a string of recent federal threat prosecutions tied to the Northern District of New York and the FBI's Albany Field Office. In June 2026, federal prosecutors in the same district charged another man, Aaron Corey, with plotting to kill two FBI special agents and a federal prosecutor, a case also investigated by the FBI Albany Field Office, per the Justice Department.
New York officials have also stepped up resources devoted to tracking bias-related threats. State officials allocated $2.5 million to place additional New York State Police investigators inside federal Joint Terrorism Task Force offices, including the Albany office that oversees northern New York, according to WXXI News. That same district secured a 21-month prison sentence in August 2024 against former Cornell student Patrick Dai for posting online violent threats against Jewish students, a case investigated jointly by the FBI Albany Field Office's Joint Terrorism Task Force and New York State Police, the Justice Department said. And in August 2026, the task force helped track down and arrest a Florida man charged in the same federal court with cyberstalking victims in New York's Capital Region.
