WHAT IS IT? The national power grid
An increase in severe weather events, attacks on power stations and the push for green energy are all highlighting the importance of a resilient national power grid.
The admitted Neo-Nazi leader from Florida arrested alongside a Maryland woman Monday in a plot to attack five substations in the Baltimore area was previously arrested after one of his roommates murdered two other roommates during a dispute about converting to Islam, according to charging documents.
Brandon Clint Russell, 27, of Orlando, Florida, and Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 34, of Catonsville, Maryland, are charged with conspiracy to destroy an energy facility, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and the FBI Baltimore Field Office announced Monday. They could each face a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars if convicted on that charge.
But according to the FBI affidavit, it’s not the first time either defendant faced prison time.
Russell, the leader of a Neo-Nazi group to which he and his roommates allegedly belonged, pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage materials in violation of federal law. He was sentenced on Jan. 9, 2018, to 60 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Brandon Russell in depicted in a June 7, 2017, mugshot from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. (Pinellas County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
Those charges came through the aftermath of the murders of two of his roommates in Tampa, Fla., in May 2017. Russell was not home at the time a third roommate, Devon Arthurs, allegedly murdered the two others, according to the affidavit by FBI Special Agent Patrick W. Straub.
Arthurs allegedly told investigators that he "had recently converted from Neo-Nazi beliefs to Islam" and murdered his roommates because "they bullied him over being Muslim."
The affidavit says Arthurs also stated that before he killed his roommates, they had been planning to attack U.S. infrastructure to include power lines along "Alligator Alley," a nickname for part of I-75 that crosses south Florida as well as "a Florida nuclear power plant."
Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for Maryland, said at a press conference on Feb. 6, 2023, that Sarah Beth Clendaniel and Brandon Clint Russell were charged with conspiracy to destroy an energy facility. (Amy Davis/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
During the ensuing response to the murders and investigation, police found "Neo-Nazi paraphernalia, a picture of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the high explosive hexamethylene triperoxide diamine ("HMTD") and, among other items, numerous explosive precursors that belonged to Russell," Straub wrote.
During an interview, Russell allegedly admitted to subscribing to "National Socialist," or Nazi, beliefs, that he started his own local National Socialist Group called "Atomwaffen," that his roommates were members of Atomwaffen, and that he manufactured the HMTD, the affidavit says.
A woman believed to be Sarah Beth Clendaniel wearing tactical gear containing a swastika, holding a rifle and with a pistol in a drop holster on her left leg. (FBI)
The Atomwaffen Division (AWD) is known to law enforcement to be a US-based racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist (RMVE) group with cells in multiple states, Straub wrote.
The group’s targets have included racial minorities, the Jewish community, the LGBTQ community, the United States Government, journalists and critical infrastructure, according to the FBI.
AWD reportedly has "international ties," the affidavit adds.
After Russell and other AWD members were arrested the group renamed itself to the National Socialist Order (NSO), the affidavit says.
Thomas J. Sobocinski, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Baltimore Field Office, announced the arrests of Sarah Beth Clendaniel and Brandon Clint Russell during a Baltimore press conference on Feb. 6, 2023. ( Amy Davis/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Related to the new charges announced Monday, Russell is accused of conspiring to carry out attacks against critical infrastructure, specifically electrical substations, in furtherance of his "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist beliefs" since at least June 2022 to the present.
As alleged, Russell encouraged the use Mylar balloons to short out a power transformer and, in a conversation on Oct. 25, 2022, Russell encouraged an attack be carried out "when there is greatest strain on the grid," like "when everyone is using electricity to either heat or cool their homes."
Sarah Beth Clendaniel is seen in a photo included in the affidavit by Special Agent Patrick W. Straub, of the Joint Terrorism Task Force ("JTTF") in the FBI Baltimore Division. (FBI)
In his conversations on encrypted communications applications, Russell posted links to open-source maps of infrastructure, which included the locations of electrical substations, and he described how a small number of attacks on substations could cause a "cascading failure," the complaint says.
Russell also discussed maximizing the impact of the planned attack by hitting multiple substations at one time.
Clendaniel, a woman based in Maryland, allegedly collaborated on the plan and discussed her desired rifle for the attack. In later conversations, she also allegedly stated that if they hit five electrical substations all in the same day in the Baltimore area, they "would completely destroy this whole city," and that a "good four or five shots through the center of them… should make that happen." She further added, "[i]t would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully," the complaint says.
Exelon said that the power grid was not disrupted because law enforcement acted before the perpetrators were able to carry out their plan.
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