The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced this week that they have foiled a totally “real” plot by supposed neo-nazis, who allegedly planned to take down the power grid in Baltimore, Maryland.
According to a statement from the agency put out on Monday, the FBI arrested two individuals, including a neo-nazi group leader, for allegedly planning an assault on the city’s power grid.
The authorities maintained that the now-foiled plot was definitely motivated by racist and extreme white supremacist beliefs.
Neo-nazi Atomwaffen Division founder Brandon Russell and alleged accomplice Sarah Beth Clendaniel were arrested last week in Florida and Maryland for allegedly planning the “racially motivated” attack, the FBI said according to CBS News.
Sarah Beth Clendaniel – U.S. Department of Justice
“The accused were not just talking, but taking steps to fulfill their threats and further their extremist goals,” said the head of the FBI’s Baltimore field office, special agent Thomas Sobocinski, insisting that the situation was definitely “real.”
“Their actions threatened the electricity and heat of our homes, hospitals and businesses. The FBI believes this was a real threat,” Sobocinski said, ABC News reported.
According to reports, Clendaniel was allegedly captured on recorded audio informing an undercover FBI informant about her plans to shoot energy stations throughout the Baltimore area in Norrisville, Reisterstown, and Perry Hall.
According to remarks made by U.S. Attorney Erek Barron at a press conference following the arrests, two individuals allegedly planned “to inflict maximum harm” on the power grid to “completely destroy” the city of Baltimore.
“Driven by their ideology of racially-motivated hatred, the defendants allegedly schemed to attack local power grid facilities,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said in a statement. “The Justice Department will not tolerate those who threaten critical infrastructure and imperil communities in the name of domestic violent extremism.”
The female suspect is accused of collaborating on the racist energy grid attack plot with Russell, whose Atomwaffen organization idolizes figures like Charles Manson and supports “lone wolf violence,” according to the SPLC.
Atomwaffen was previously featured on a PBS Frontline documentary titled Documenting Hate: New American Nazis, which explores the “group’s terrorist objectives and how it gained strength” following the controversial 2017 Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
This news and commentary by Andrew White originally appeared on Valiant News.
