Three men plotted for months to bomb a block of flats that was home to Somali immigrants, a court heard.
Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright and Patrick Eugene Stein intended to detonate trucks at each corner of the complex in Garden City, Kansas, which also contained a mosque, prosecutor Risa Berkower said.
She added that t hey plann ed to “kill as many Muslims as they could ” and wanted to “plant the message that Muslims are not welcomed”.
The men were members of the K ansas Security Force, descr ibed as a militia g roup in court, but had formed a splinter group called “the Crus aders”, Ms Berkower told the federal court in Wichita, Kansas.
She said the d efendants had attempted to recruit other militia members for the plot but had been unsuccessful.
One of the men approached tipped off law enforcement about the p lan and later agreed t o wear a wire as a paid informant, she said.
Officials investigated the plo t for months, recording the men referring to the Somalis as “cockroaches”, the court heard.
“The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim," Mr Stein was allegedly he ard saying during a recorded conversation. “If you're a Muslim, I'm going to enjoy shooting you in the head.”
The m en allegedly stockpiled weapons and explosives and kept the apartment complex under surveillance.
All three deny conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiring to deny others’ civil rights. They face life in prison if convicted.
Stein also faces an additional weapons-related charge and Wright faces a charge of lying to the FBI.
