SEATTLE _ The FBI has arrested four people described by the agency as "violent extremists" with ties to the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division after an investigation into threats mailed to people in Washington including a journalist and racial and religious minorities.
The complaint names Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, of Redmond, Wash., described as a primary recruiter for the domestic terrorist organization; Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas; Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, of Spring Hill, Fla.; and Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queen Creek, Ariz. All were taken into custody Tuesday or Wednesday.
All are charged with a single count of conspiracy to mail threatening communications and commit cyberstalking, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Shea was arrested in Seattle. He appeared Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler and will be held in custody pending a March 11 preliminary hearing. The heavily bearded Shea, clad in an olive jumpsuit and flanked by deputy U.S. Marshals, did not speak during the brief hearing. Greg Murphy, his appointed federal public defender, declined to comment.
The other men were taken into custody in Florida, Texas and Arizona. They will be extradited to Washington for trial, said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran.
The charges allege Cole, who lived in Washington before moving to Texas, is a co-leader of Atomwaffen Division, deemed one of the most violent and dangerous domestic terrorist groups. He is currently facing gun charges in King County.
The charges allege that members of Atomwaffen _ German for "Atomic Weapon" _ had mounted an intimidation campaign against at least one local television journalist and two activists associated with the Anti-Defamation League. Posters containing swastikas, skulls and threats like "We know where you live" were sent to their home addresses.
The complaint states that on Jan. 25, Garza and another individual were followed to an apartment complex in Phoenix, where a member of the Arizona Association of Black Journalists resided, and then proceeded to the home of the editor of a local Jewish publication. The two men were seen fleeing the area and a poster titled "Your Actions Have Consequences" was found taped on the editor's bedroom window.
That same day, Shea was followed in her vehicle to a Redmond Target parking lot, where agents watched him change into a grey hoodie, stocking cap and don a surgical mask. He then walked across the street to a Fred Meyer, where he paid cash for a book of Santa Claus stamps and a roll of packing tape. Letters sent to a reporter and the unidentified Anti-Defamation bore Santa Claus stamps, the complaint states.
The reporter has been identified as KING 5's Chris Ingalls, who said he received a poster was in an envelope. The poster bore his name and personal cell phone number and stated, "Two Can Play at This Game," which Ingalls interpreted as a reference to his appearance at Cole's home last year while reporting on the gun seizures.
In the background are the words "Death to Pigs," which Ingalls pointed out was scrawled in blood on the wall of Sharon Tate's home by followers of Charles Manson in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969. Atomwaffen's ideology adheres to Manson's belief in "Helter Skelter," using violence to incite a race war.
The other Washington victims are not identified in the complaint. An FBI "Situational Information Report" sent to law enforcement earlier this month, obtained by The Seattle Times, said the threats were made to residents in Mercer Island, Edmonds and Seattle.
"These defendants sought to spread fear and terror with threats delivered to the doorstep of those who are critical of their activities," Moran said at a news conference. The U.S. Department of Justice has prioritized prosecution of domestic terrorists, he said, whose threat has now been determined to outstrip the threat posed by international terrorism. Moran said the investigation is continuing and that there may be additional charges filed against these defendants and others arrested.
Raymond Duda, special agent in charge of Seattle's FBI office, said the bureau has been aware of the makings of the alleged conspiracy since 2018, and Ingalls, the TV reporter, said the bureau had approached him out of the blue to alert him that he may be the target of Atomwaffen threats. At one point, he said, members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force were watching his home.
The complaint quotes extensively from "encrypted" messages sent between the defendants and others. Duda would not say how the FBI obtained those messages from a supposedly secure site.
The charges allege Shea concocted what he called "Operation Erste Saule," which he said was "named after the first pillar of state power, AKA the media."
The complaint alleges that after his gun seizures in September, Cole posted a recording to Atomwaffen Division members via an encrypted service called Wire that stated, "The matter of these nosy reporters coming into our daily lives, where we work, where we live, where we go in our spare time. We must simply approach them with nothing but pure aggression."
Shea, according to the charges, was identified as using the moniker "Krokodil" on a series of far-right social media site. The complaint quotes him as encouraging other members to "go full McVeigh and start dispatching political and economic targets ... helping build the social tension that will accelerate the collapse of the system."
Timothy McVeigh was a white supremacist and militia member responsible for the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.
The complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office erroneously cites a Seattle Times article published Feb. 23, 2018, about Atomwaffen, which the government wrongly states contained identifying and personal information about Atomwaffen members. Neither the Times article nor the ProPublica story it links to contains detailed personal information about Atomwaffen members.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, says Atomwaffen is organized "as a series of terror cells that work toward civilizational collapse." Members of the group and their associates have been linked to multiple killings.
