Members of a US far right extremist group, including two former Marines, were charged with conspiracy for allegedly planning power grid attacks.
The group, who initially met on a neo-Nazi forum, had previously been charged with smuggling guns in order to build a “modern day SS,” reported Raw Story.
Paul James Kryscuk, 35, Liam Collins, 21, Jordan Duncan, 26, and Joseph Maurino, 22, were charged on August 20 with a third indictment by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for “conspiracy to damage the property of an energy facility in the United States.”
Collins and Duncan are former Marines who were based out of Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
The charges state that the group “researched, discussed, and reviewed at length a previous attack on the power grid by an unknown group” that attempted to use assault rifles to blow up a power substation.
The indictment also accused Kryscuk of manufacturing firearms, Collins of stealing military gear, and Duncan of building a library of information about firearms, explosives and nerve toxins.
The indictment further alleged that the defendants discussed using homemade Thermite to destroy power transformers. Thermite is a combination of metal power and metal oxide that burns at over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
“In October 2020, a handwritten list of approximately one dozen intersections and places in Idaho and surrounding states was discovered in Kryscuk’s possession, including intersections and/or places containing a transformer, substations, or other component of the power grid for the northwest United States. If destroyed, the damage caused could exceed $100,000,” said a DOJ statement.
The DOJ added that “previous indictments allege that Collins and Kryscuk were members of and made multiple posts on the ‘Iron March’ forum, a gathering point for young neo-Nazis to organize and recruit for extremist organizations, until the forum was closed in late 2017.”
Collins and Kryscuk allegedly met on the forum and used encrypted messaging apps to communicate.
Video footage recorded by members of the group showed them “firing short barrel rifles and other assault-type rifles, and the end of the propaganda video shows the four participants outfitted in AtomWaffen masks giving the ‘Heil Hitler’ sign, beneath the image of a black sun, a Nazi symbol. The last frame bears the phrase, ‘Come home white man.’”
The four men face up to 40 years in prison if convicted on all counts.