The three suspects have been under FBI surveillance for months, officials said, and agents made their move ahead of a gun rights rally in Virginia next week.
Three suspected members of a white supremacist group face federal charges after the FBI apprehended them days before a gun rights rally in Virginia’s capital next week, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The suspects are allegedly part of a fringe group known as The Base, and law enforcement officials say the timing of their arrests is related to the event in Richmond, which the men planned to attend. On Wednesday, Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency after receiving "credible intelligence" that armed militias and hate groups are expected to be present — increasing the potential for civil unrest at a gathering expected to draw thousands.
Law enforcement officials say the men have been under FBI surveillance for months.
Two of the suspects — Brian Lemley, Jr., 33, of Elkton, Maryland, and Newark, Delaware; and William Bilbrough IV(4), 19, of Denton, Maryland — were charged with transporting and harboring aliens and conspiring to do so, according to the complaint. In addition, Lemley was charged with transporting a machine gun and disposing of a firearm and ammunition to an alien unlawfully present in the United States.
That person was identified as Canadian national Patrik Mathews, 27, allegedly a main recruiter for The Base. He was charged with being an alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
He and Lemley were also charged with transporting a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony.
According to the complaint, Mathews, a combat engineer in the Canadian Army Reserve, illegally crossed into the United States last August near the Manitoba-Minnesota border.
Several days later, Lemley and Bilbrough drove from Maryland to Michigan, where Mathews was hiding out, and brought him to Maryland, officials said. In early November, Mathews and Lemley rented an apartment in Delaware.
The next month, the pair constructed a functioning assault rifle, according to the affidavit.
The men continued to build up their supplies and training, according to the complaint, with Lemley and Mathews buying 1,650 rounds of ammunition this month, using the assault rifle at a Maryland gun range and retrieving vests for body armor.
The affidavit added that The Base uses encrypted chat rooms, and its members have discussed establishing a white ethno-state from the fallout of a race war and committing acts of violence against minorities, including black people and Jews.
Mathews, who joined the Canadian military in 2010 and had held a leadership position with the army reserves, was the subject of at least two investigations last year by the military and police in Canada, according to reports.
The Winnipeg Free Press reported last summer that he had been behind a recruitment drive in the city for The Base, described as a neo-Nazi group that hosts paramilitary-style training camps.
Three more suspected neo-Nazis connected to a white nationalist group that reportedly planned to have members at a gun rights rally in Virginia have been arrested, authorities say.
Three Georgia men were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and participating in a criminal street gang as part of the hate group, The Base, according to the Floyd County Police Department.
The three Georgia men, identified as Luke Austin Lane of Floyd County, Michael Helterbrand of Dalton and Jacob Kaderli of Dacula, were planning to "overthrow the government and murder a Bartow County couple," Floyd County police said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear if the Georgia men planned to attend the Virginia rally. Multiple media outlets reported Thursday that the men in Maryland planned to attend, and authorities moved on them in fears they might incite violence.
Lane, who was arrested near his home without incident Wednesday, and Kaderli are being housed in Floyd County, and Helterbrand is to arrive later Friday, police said. Lane was also denied bond Thursday.
The three men allegedly planned to murder a couple they believed to members of Antifa, the anti-fascist group. According to an arrest affidavit, Lane spearheaded the plot to kill the couple with the help of Kaderli and Helterbrand, however, the operation was delayed, in part because Helterbrand said he had a bad back. [ Ссылка ]

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