FBI arrests suspected neo-Nazi group members before Virginia gun rally

Governor declares state of emergency after credible threats of racial clashes

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and announced a temporary ban on weapons ahead of a planned Monday gun rally at the state Capitol. Law enforcement authorities identified credible “threats of violence,” including from out-of-state militia groups and hate groups, that planned disruptions at the rally.

The FBI has arrested three men suspected of being members of a neo-Nazi hate group, including a former reservist in the Canadian army, who had weapons and discussed traveling to a pro-gun rally next week in Richmond, Virginia, in anticipation of a possible race war.

The men were taken into custody Thursday morning as part of a long-running investigation into the group, known as The Base. The men were charged with various federal crimes in Maryland, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the case. They were scheduled to appear in federal court before a judge Thursday.

3 suspects identified

One of the men, 27-year-old Patrik Jordan Mathews, a main recruiter for the group, entered the United States illegally from Canada, according to officials. Mathews was trained as a combat engineer and was considered an expert in explosives. He was dismissed from the Canadian army after his ties to white supremacists surfaced.

This undated photo provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police shows Patrik Mathews. FBI agents arrested the former Canadian Armed Forces reservist and two other men who are linked to a violent white supremacist group and were believed to be heading to a pro-gun rally next week in Virginia's capital.

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The other suspects taken into custody were Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, of Elkton, Maryland, charged with transporting a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony, and William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 19, of Denton, Maryland, who is charged with “ transporting and harboring aliens.”

Mathews and Lemley were arrested in Delaware and Bilbrough was arrested in Maryland, according to Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland.

Authorities say Lemley and Mathews built an assault rifle using several parts, including an upper-receiver that Lemley ordered and shipped to a Maryland home. In December, the three men gathered at an apartment that Lemley and Mathews rented in Delaware, where they discussed The Base and its activities and members, passed around the assault rifle and tried to make the drug DMT, a hallucinogen, according to court papers.

A few days later, Lemley and Mathews bought 150 rounds of ammunition and paper shooting targets, and Lemley was spotted by an FBI agent at a gun range in Maryland. Court papers say federal agents heard the gun firing in rapid succession, and authorities allege that Lemley later told Mathews: “Oh, oops, it looks like I accidentally made a machine gun.”

Federal agents appeared to be tracking the men's movements and set up a stationary camera near the gun range, which captured video of Mathews shooting the gun there Jan. 5. Court documents say Lemley had also ordered 1,500 rounds of ammunition and he and Mathews visited the gun range as recently as Saturday.

What is The Base?

The Base has become a growing concern for the FBI as it has worked to recruit more people to its violent cause. The Base is an “accelerationist group that encourages the onset on anarchy,” according to the Counter Extremism Project, a group that tracks far-right extremists.

In encrypted chat rooms, members of The Base have discussed committing acts of violence against African Americans and Jews, ways to make improvised explosive devices, their military-style training camps and their desire to create a white “ethno-state,” according to an FBI agent's affidavit.

Former law enforcement officials said The Base and another white supremacist group known as Atomwaffen have become priorities for the FBI. Several members of the group have recently been arrested. In November, the FBI arrested a young man in New Jersey who was suspected of recruiting on behalf of The Base and of advocating violence, including the killing of African American people with a machete.

Emergency declared

On Wednesday, Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia declared a state of emergency and announced a temporary ban on weapons on the grounds of the state Capitol before the rally.

Thousands of protesters are expected to converge in Richmond on Monday to protest proposed restrictions on gun purchases by the Virginia Legislature.

The governor said on Twitter that authorities had identified credible “threats of violence,” including from out-of-state militia groups and hate groups that planned disruptions.

He said authorities had also found extremist rhetoric online similar to what had been seen in 2017 before the Charlottesville rally, when white nationalists and counter-protesters clashed in a deadly fight over the removal of Confederate monuments.

Protesters were expected to descend on the state Capitol on Monday, which is a federal holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

— This story contains reporting by Michael Kunzelman and Mike Balsamo of The Associated Press. Compiled by ArLuther Lee, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.