The Justice Department seems to have thwarted a racially motivated terrorist attack in Baltimore, Maryland, the largest city and economic center of the state.
The FBI believes a Maryland woman and Florida man teamed up to conspire “to carry out attacks against critical infrastructure, specifically electrical substations,” to push their neo-Nazi agenda and cause chaos in the predominantly Black city.
An announcement released on Monday, Feb. 6, states the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Erek L. Barron, and Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski, of the FBI Baltimore Field Office have filed a federal criminal complaint against Sarah Beth Clendaniel, of Catonsville, Maryland, and Brandon Clint Russell, of Orlando, Florida.
The two suspects were arrested last week, and Monday was when authorities revealed their alleged conspiracy to “completely destroy this whole city” by attacking the major Charm City power grid.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen said the plan to attack Baltimore’s power grid facilities was “driven by their ideology of racially-motivated hatred.” Baltimore is 61 percent African-American.
Russell, 27, one of the founders of the Atomwaffen Division (a neo-Nazi group) started working on the plans for domestic terrorist attacks in June 2022, and later brought Clendaniel, 34, on to help map out the plan, the DOJ states.
An FBI informant was allegedly in contact with Russell and flagged the government about his plans. However, this was not the first time the DOJ engaged the Floridian.
The FBI started following Russell in 2018 after his Muslim roommate Devon Arthurs killed two other roommates for teasing him about his recent conversion to Islam.
The murder probe in Tampa, according to NBC News, discovered Russell’s connection to Atomwaffen.
Ironically, all four roommates were at one time active members of the “Atomwaffen,” the DOJ uncovered. Arthurs claimed he witnessed Russell “participating in online neo-Nazi chat rooms, where he threatened to kill people and bomb infrastructure. Arthurs further advised law enforcement that Russell had explosive materials in the house.”
Investigators were told by Arthurs that Russell was developing a similar plan to attack other power stations. Russell was picked up, arrested, convicted, and sentenced “to five years in federal prison for possessing an unregistered destructive device and for unlawful storage of explosive material,” federal documents show.
Clendaniel is alleged to have identified five substations that would be targeted. According to the federal complaint, the power stations were in Norrisville, Reisterstown, and Perry Hall, Maryland, and two more “in the vicinity of Baltimore.”
