FBI Captures Neo-Nazi Leader, Disrupts Plot to Attack Baltimore's Power Grid

Photo: MARVIN RECINOS/Getty Images

The FBI captured two people, one of them a nationally known neo-Nazi leader, before they could launch an attack on Baltimore’s power grid. that it had the potential to “completely destroy this entire city.”

The suspects, Brandon Russell and Sarah Clendaniel, were arrested last week in Florida and Maryland, respectively, authorities said.

Federal authorities described the alleged plot as “racially or ethnically motivated,” because more than 61% of Baltimore residents are black.

Russell, 27, is one of the founders of the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group bent on “fostering the collapse of civilization.”according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights activist organization.

The alleged plot was first flagged in June after an FBI informant claimed to have been contacted by Russell, who wanted to “attack electrical substations and provided guidance on how to do maximum damage,” according to the criminal complaint filed against the couple.

According to the investigation, Clendaniel, 34, had five stations in his sights, in Norrisville, Reisterstown and Perry Hall, Maryland, and two more “in nearby Baltimore,” according to the complaint.

Attacks on all five would be a “’ring’ around Baltimore and if they attack several of them on the same day, they ‘would completely destroy this entire city,’” Clendaniel allegedly said in a recorded conversation, the complaint revealed.

Thomas J. Sobocinski, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore office, said the suspects were serious in their efforts to bring the city of 580,000 to a standstill.

“The defendants were not just talking, they were taking action to carry out their threats and further their extremist goals. Russell provided directions and location information. He described attacking power transformers as the best thing anyone could do,” Sobocinski said.

Attacks on the country’s power grid came into focus in December after two high-profile incidents.

There were shootings at two power substations in central North Carolina in early December, authorities said. At the peak of Duke Energy’s blackouts, more than 45,000 homes and businesses were left in the dark.

They were followed by attacks on four power substations over Christmas weekend near Tacoma, Washington, when about 14,000 homes and businesses were forced to live without power, authorities said.

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