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An FBI informant working undercover inside a Florida chapter of the Ku Klux Klan exposed a troubling connection between the white supremacist organization's members and local law enforcement agencies.
For ten years, Joe Moore worked as a confidential informant in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, as a key component of the agency's investigation into the KKK. The married father of three gathered information on the KKK in Jacksonville, Florida from 2007 to 2017, where he helped foil at least two murder plots and exposed active members working inside law enforcement at the county and state levels.
Moore is speaking out now because he says his life –– and his family's lives –– are under threat by the very people he helped take down.
"We live in a constant state of danger," Moore told The Associated Press, adding that he's speaking out "before something does happen to me."
Moore says that while members of the KKK state that they are a " law-abiding" and peaceful" organization, behind closed doors, it's a completely different story.
"In secret, they constantly discuss violent acts in support of their ideology," Moore said, adding that members frequently use the N-word. "From day one, I decided I would never use that term, even if it created a more dangerous situation for myself," he said.
"When I'm with these guys, I'm in that character. I realize that any moment, I could hear a bang," he said, noting that if he were to be found out, "I'd be murdered."
By 2014, Moore rose in the ranks of the KKK, becoming a security officer and was approached by three other members who worked as prison guards. The three men wanted Moore's help in killing a Black man incarcerated at the prison where they worked.
Moore alerted the FBI, who staged a photo of the man's death used to confirm the prison guard-KKK member's involvement in the plot.
Across his time working undercover, Moore said he came into contact with people who were former and active military service members, law enforcement officers at the state, local, and county levels. Moore's work also added that the KKK was recruiting new members at Florida prisons –– something the state Department of Corrections denies.
"From where I sat, with the intelligence laid out, I can tell you that none of these agencies have any control over any of it. It is more prevalent and consequential than any of them are willing to admit," Moore said.
"If you want to know why people don't trust the police, it's because they have a relative or a friend that they witnessed being targeted by extremist who happened to have a badge and a gun," Moore continued.
"I know for a fact that this has occurred," Moore added. "I stopped a murder plot [involving] law enforcement officers."
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