NORFOLK, Va. _ The FBI has arrested three suspected members of a neo-Nazi hate group amid allegations they planned to travel to a pro-gun rally next week in Richmond with a homemade machine gun.
A day before their arrests, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and announced a temporary ban on weapons on the grounds of the Capitol. Northam said he had received intelligence of "credible, serious threats" of violence, including extremist rhetoric mirroring what was seen before the 2017 white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville.
The men were taken into custody Thursday morning as part of a long-running investigation into the group, known as The Base, as first reported by The New York Times.
Patrik Mathews, a former combat engineer in the Canadian Army Reserve; Brian Lemley Jr., a former cavalry scout in the U.S. Army; and William Bilbrough IV were scheduled to appear later Thursday in federal court in Maryland on various gun and immigration charges.
Mathews, 27, is a recruiter for the group. He was dismissed from the Canadian Army after his ties to white supremacists surfaced last year.
He entered the United States illegally from Canada through Minnesota around Aug. 19, according to federal court records. On Aug. 30, Lemley and Bilbrough drove from Maryland to pick up Mathews in Michigan, the court documents said. They returned to Maryland together.
The Winnipeg Free Press reported in August at least two investigations were underway into Mathews' "extremist activity." One was being conducted by the armed forces and the other by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The investigations stemmed from a Winnipeg Free Press report that identified Mathews, then a master corporal with the reserves, was behind a recent recruitment drive in Winnipeg for The Base.
The Base has become a growing concern for the FBI, the Times reported. It encourages anarchy by sowing social unrest and political tension in a movement called "accelerationism," according to the Counter Extremism Project, a group that tracks far-right extremists.
The FBI has discovered that members of The Base have used encrypted chat rooms to discuss "recruitment, creating a white ethno-state, committing acts of violence against minority communities (including African Americans and Jewish Americans), the organization's military-style training camps, and ways to make improvised explosive devices," according to the criminal complaint.
FBI agents have been tracking the three men for several months and have gathered audio and video surveillance. FBI Special Agent Rachid Harrison laid out the evidence against the men in an affidavit unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Maryland.
Here's what law enforcement discovered:
In November, Lemley, 33, and Mathews moved into an apartment in Newark, Del. By December, the men used firearm parts to make an assault rifle.
On Dec. 21, Bilbrough, 19, of Denton, Md., visited Lemley and Mathews in Delaware. They attempted to make DMT, an illegal hallucinogenic. They discussed The Base's activities and Mathews showed Bilbrough the assault rifle. On New Year's Day, Lemley and Mathews purchased 150 rounds of ammunition and paper targets.
They went to a gun range in Maryland the next day. Afterward, Mathews said the gun fired more than one round at a time.
Lemley said, "Oh oops, it looks like I accidentally made a machine gun."
He then asked Mathews to take off the lower receiver of the gun so he could stow it away until next week, "just in case the ATF shows up tomorrow."
Mathews replied, "if they show up here, we got other problems."
The men visited a gun range in Maryland three times in January.
On Jan. 11, Lemley ordered about 1,500 more rounds of ammunition. Lemley and Mathews picked up at least some of the bullets as well as plate carriers to support body armor from Lemley's prior residence in Maryland.
Federal law enforcement officials took action to apprehend the men after that.
Monday's rally in Richmond is expected to draw tens of thousands of demonstrators to protest proposed restrictions on gun purchases in the state. Philip Van Cleave, who heads the Citizens Defense League, said he's expecting 50,000 to 120,000 people, including out-of-state groups not associated with his organization. Northam said he expects militia and hate groups will descend on the Capitol on Monday intending to become violent.
