A neo-Nazi leader is one of two people who have been arrested for allegedly plotting to wipe out Baltimore's power grid in what authorities are calling a "racially motivated" attack.
According to The Washington Post, Brandon Russell, a nationally known neo-Nazi leader, and Sarah Clendaniel were charged with conspiring to destroy energy facilities in Baltimore, Maryland and taken into custody.
"If we can pull off what I'm hoping … this would be legendary," Clendaniel told an FBI informant, per court documents obtained by the Post.
Federal officials say the pair planned to launch attacks on five power substations in Baltimore, a majority-Black city. Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the FBI Baltimore Field Office called the scheme "racially or ethnically motivated."
"The accused were not just talking but taking steps to fulfill their threats and further their extremist goals," Sobocinski said, per WBFF-TV.
"Russell provided instructions and location information. He described attacking the power transformers as the 'greatest thing somebody can do,'" he added, the Post reports. "In her own words, Clendaniel said she was determined to do this. She added, 'It would lay this city to waste.'"
NBC News reports that Russell is a founder of Atomwaffen Division (AWD), a neo-Nazi hate group. AWD is a "series of terror cells that work toward civilizational collapse" whose followers "fetishize violence as the only vehicle for apocalyptic, racial cleansing," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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