The FBI captured two people, one a nationally known neo-Nazi leader, before they could launch an attack on Baltimore’s power grid, officials said Monday.
The suspects, Brandon Russell and Sarah Clendaniel, were taken into custody last week, one in Maryland and the other in Florida, officials said.
Federal authorities described the alleged plot as “racially motivated.”
Russell is a founder of the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group bent on “ushering in the collapse of civilization,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group admires Charles Manson and supports “the idea of lone wolf violence,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Attacks on the nation’s power grid came into focus in December, following two high-profile incidents.
There were shootings at two electrical substations in central North Carolina in early December, officials said. At the peak of Duke Energy outages, more than 45,000 homes and businesses were in the dark.
That incident was followed by attacks at four electricity substations on Christmas weekend near Tacoma, Washington, as about 14,000 homes and businesses were forced to do without power, officials said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
