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FBI arrests US, Canadian ‘white extremists’ ahead of pro-gun rally
WASHINGTON, Jan 17, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The FBI arrested three alleged
members of the white extremist group “The Base” Thursday, saying they
accumulated ammunition and built a functioning automatic weapon, days before
a Virginia rally against gun controls.
Federal prosecutors in Greenbelt, Maryland said that US citizens Brian
Lemley, 33, and William Bilbrough, 19, and Canadian Patrik Jordan Mathews,
27, were all charged with felony firearms violations.
Lemley and Bilbrough were also charged in relation to transporting and
harboring an illegal alien.
Prosecutors said the three were members of The Base, described as an
international network of white nationalists who have paramilitary training
camps and who discuss online bomb-making and “committing acts of violence
against minority communities.”
The arrest came a day after the governor of the neighboring state of
Virginia declared a “state of emergency” ahead of a gun rights rally in the
capital of Richmond, citing “credible threats” of violence from white
nationalist and militia groups.
Mathews, a Canadian army reserve combat engineer trained in explosives,
was reported missing in Canada in August 2019 after he was suspended from his
reserve unit in relation alleged neo-Nazi activities.
The FBI said he illegally crossed into the United States and was met in
Minnesota by Lemley and Bilbrough, who drove him to Maryland.
In January, FBI investigators observed them assembling from parts an
assault rifle and test-firing it at a Maryland shooting range at rates of
more than one round at a time, making it an illegal automatic firearm.
“Oops, it looks like I accidentally made a machine gun,” Lemley told
Mathews, according to court filings.
After testing the gun multiple times last month, the group ordered 1,500
rounds of ammunition.
They also had plate carriers, a component of body armor.
The indictment did not say what the three had planned for the assault
rifle and ammunition.
US media cited unnamed law enforcement officials as saying the three
discussed going to the Richmond protest Monday. The protest is against a new
Virginia law banning guns in the buildings of the state legislature.
Law enforcement has expressed strong concerns over potential violence at
the rally, where many protestors could carry firearms.
“Law enforcement intelligence analysts have identified credible threats of
violence surrounding the event, along with white nationalist rhetoric and
plans by out-of-state militia groups to attend,” Virginia Governor Ralph
Northam said Wednesday in a statement.
Lemley and Bilbrough face up to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to
harbor an alien.
Additionally, Lemley and Mathews each face up to 20 years in prison on two
separate firearms-related charges.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 0831 hrs