The terror is over.
Accused Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad is in custody and refusing to talk, task force investigators told The Post.
His teenage sidekick – and suspected letter-writer – John Lee Malvo, also is keeping mum, sources said.
Malvo, a 17-year-old Jamaican citizen who is in the United States illegally, was arraigned as a material witness yesterday afternoon at a closed-door hearing before a Baltimore judge.
He is not related to murder-spree suspect Muhammad – a 41-year-old Gulf War Army veteran and recognized marksman – although he routinely introduces himself as his stepson.
Muhammad’s three-week reign of terror ended at 3:30 a.m. yesterday as he dozed peacefully in a highway rest stop, cops said. He was either unaware or unconcerned that an “armed and dangerous” all-points bulletin had been issued for him and his car, a blue Chevrolet Caprice with New Jersey license plates.
Malvo was with him in the car.
The two surrendered – but not quietly. A source said there was a lot of yelling and shouting when cops shattered the windows of the car and nabbed them.
Task force cops had rushed to the I-70 rest stop in Middletown, Md. – 50 miles from Washington – shortly after midnight, after a motorist spotted the car and called 911. Ironically, the tipster was driving a white van, which is what the killer was originally believed to be using.
A semi-automatic Bushmaster XM-15 – similar to an M-16 and known as the poor man’s sniper rifle – was found in the Caprice, along with a scope, bipod and “sniper’s platform.”
Police said ballistics tests conclusively linked the gun to the coldblooded spree of sniper attacks that left 10 dead, three wounded, and millions terrified.
Sources said Muhammed’s car had been modified to permit a gunman to lie down and fire unseen from the sniper’s platform by slightly opening the trunk.
The arrests came after three days of frenzied and fruitful leg work by the sniper task force.
It started on Monday when cops got a hot-line tip from a man in Tacoma, Wash., who identified himself as a friend of Muhammad and Malvo, and said one of them had told him details about one of the Maryland sniper attacks that hadn’t been reported on the news.
He said his caller also bragged about a fatal Montgomery, Ala., liquor store stickup in which he was involved.
The tipster described the two as “transients” who used to fire guns outside their home in a densely populated area of Tacoma. And he said they owned a .223-caliber rifle.
Cops were investigating the call when they were contacted by the suspected sniper himself. In his call, the killer insisted that he be taken seriously, and mentioned the Alabama incident.
Task force members contacted cops in Montgomery, Ala., and determined that the two phone calls were about a Sept. 21 liquor store holdup in which a woman was shot to death.
The Alabama cops also provided crime scene evidence – including a fingerprint from a magazine about guns.
The task force traced the print to Malvo, who had a juvenile record.
That led police to Bellingham, Wash., where Malvo had attended high school until about nine months ago.
Cops also had a partial license plate number, and the description of a Caprice that had been seen at the scene of one of the earlier sniper attacks – in Washington, D.C.
That matched a car registered to Muhammad at a Camden, N.J., address.
Meanwhile, FBI agents in Tacoma went to Bellingham HS to get a sample of Malvo’s handwriting.
Officials said it appears to match the writing in the $10 million ransom demand letters left by the sniper after his last two attacks.
U.S. marshals then did some electronic surveillance of pay and cell phones used by Malvo’s friends in the area. By Tuesday, that eavesdropping led them to back to the D.C. area, and a home in Clinton, Md.
The home – which belongs to Muhammad’s second wife, Mildred, and her sister – was put under surveillance.
Cops became absolutely certain they were on the right trail on Wednesday afternoon, when they traced a bank account number given in the second letter to cops as an option for depositing the $10 million.
The account was in Jamaica, and it was tied to Malvo.
At that point, late Wednesday afternoon, the task force knew who they were after.
Police Chief Charles Moose of the Montgomery County, Md., police was about to hold a 6 p.m. press briefing when everything seemed to come together.
He canceled the briefing, citing new developments in the case.
At the same time, FBI agents and local cops in Tacoma headed for the house that Muhammad and Malvo had been living in.
Using metal detectors, they combed the yard for shell casings left behind during their target practice sessions, and they cut down and hauled off a tree stump believed to contain shell fragments.
That done, they got a warrant for Muhammad’s arrest on federal firearms charges.
At midnight, back at sniper task force headquarters in Rockville, Md., Moose held a dramatic press briefing at which he announced that Muhammad was being sought and was considered “armed and dangerous.”
He released a photo of Muhammad and a description of his car and license plate.
Then, he urged the sniper to resume his dialogue with police, and, in a cryptic message, told him: “You have communicated that you want us to do and say certain things. You asked us to say, ‘We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.’ ”
Sources said Moose intentionally made it appear that Muhammad and the sniper were different people to make the killer feel secure while cops continued pursuing their leads, and hopefully keep him from ending his murderous spree in a dramatic final act of violence.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona in New York, Adam Miller in Camden, N.J., and Brian Blomquist in Washington, D.C.