LOS ANGELES _ Federal authorities have arrested the leader and two members of a Southern California white power group, less than two weeks after other members of the organization were indicted for inciting a riot in Charlottesville, Va., last year, federal authorities said.
Robert Rundo, leader of the so-called Rise Above Movement, was taken into custody Sunday at the Los Angeles International Airport, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. He is due in court Wednesday morning.
Two others were arrested Wednesday morning in connection with organizing and participating in riots, Eimiller said.
The arrests come after several other members and associates of the group were publicly accused of traveling to Virginia with the intent to incite a riot and commit violence in Charlottesville last year.
Benjamin Daley, 25, along with Thomas Walter Gillen, 34, both of Redondo Beach; Michael Paul Miselis, 29, of Lawndale; and Cole Evan White, 24, of the Northern California city of Clayton, were arrested earlier this month.
For more than a year, authorities say, the group has caused trouble across California, at political rallies in places including Berkeley and Huntington Beach. Much of the violence at the Charlottesville rallies was captured in photos and videos, screenshots of which were laid out in an affidavit prepared by an FBI task force officer.
In one scene, White is seen head-butting a woman, leaving her with a bloody gash on her face. In another, White grabs a counter-protester by the shoulders and jerks him away before head-butting a minister wearing a clerical collar. The footage also appears to show Miselis, his hands taped, shoving a black man to the ground and then striking him.
