‘Extremists’ charged with intimidating journalists
Five men described by federal officials as “racially motivated violent extremists” with ties to a neo-Nazi group called the Atomwaffen Division were arrested on charges including intimidation of journalists and making bogus bomb threats.
Four were accused of focusing on those who are Jewish or journalists of color.
In Seattle, prosecutors accused the four alleged Atomwaffen Division members with cyberstalking and mailing threats in a campaign against journalists, who received posters covered in swastikas and the warning: “We know where you live.”
The four were identified as Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, from Redmond, Washington; Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, from Spring Hill, Florida; Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queens Creek, Arizona; and Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas.
Prosecutors described Cole as the leader of the group.
John Denton, 26, of Montgomery, Texas, a former leader of the Atomwaffen Division, was arrested Wednesday and charged with a series of phony bomb threats made in Virginia and across multiple countries, according to the Justice Department.
An affidavit unsealed Wednesday details a scheme in which a caller reported phony incidents to 911, prompting police to send out heavily armed SWAT teams to the targets of the scheme.
The complaint says Denton “swatted” the New York offices of ProPublica, an online investigative news outlet, and a ProPublica journalist. The affidavit says Denton was angry at ProPublica for exposing his role as an Atomwaffen leader.
“These defendants from across the country allegedly conspired on the internet to intimidate journalists and activists with whom they disagreed,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers. “This is not how America works. The Department of Justice will not tolerate this type of behavior.”
The complaint says the Atomwaffen Division hosted a “Death Valley Hate Camp” in Las Vegas in 2018 where members trained in hand-to-hand combat and firearms, created neo-Nazi propaganda videos and took pictures of themselves posing with weapons.
Prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, said the targets of the bogus bomb threats included a predominantly African American church in Alexandria, an unidentified Cabinet official living in Northern Virginia and Old Dominion University in Norfolk.