The founder of an extreme neo-Nazi group and his girlfriend have been charged with plotting to attack several Maryland power stations.
Brandon Russel, 27, the founder of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen, and Sarah Clendaniel, 34, are alleged to have planned to shoot five electrical substations in the Baltimore area, the Washington Post reported. If convicted, the pair face up to 20 years in prison.
“Together, we are using every legal means necessary to keep Marylanders safe and to disrupt hate-fueled violence,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek Barron said in a speech thanking law enforcement for uncovering the plot. “When we are united, hate cannot win.”
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Special Agent in Charge Thomas Sobocinski of the FBI field office in Baltimore said Clendaniel and Russell conspired to inflict “maximum harm” to the power grid.
“The accused were not just talking but taking steps to fulfill their threats and further their extremist goals,” Sobocinski said. “Russell provided instructions and location information. He described attacking the power transformers as the ‘greatest thing somebody can do.’ In her own words, Clendaniel said she was determined to do this. She added, ‘It would lay this city to waste.’”
The plot was discovered when Clendaniel attempted to buy a new semiautomatic rifle from a federal informant, the criminal complaint alleges. She also gave a detailed recount of the plan to the informant.
“If we can pull off what I’m hoping … this would be legendary,” she told the informant.
Russel was released from prison in August 2021 after being sentenced to five years in 2018 for possession of explosives. Russell began talking to the informant while he was still in prison about his plans.
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The FBI said that there is “no indication” that the plan was a wider plot or connected to any larger network. The pair has not been linked to December’s attacks on energy infrastructure in North Carolina.
Russell was used as an example of plans created by extremists to target critical infrastructure in an August 2022 report from George Washington University. The Atomwaffen Division was also named as a key instigator of a rise in planned attacks on energy infrastructure in the U.S.
