The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office officials in Baltimore announced they had arrested two individuals, a man and a woman, with extremist views who were allegedly attempting to attack the power grid in Maryland. FBI officials told reporters they believe this was a “real threat” that had been thwarted.
Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 34, of Catonsville, Maryland, and Brandon Clint Russell, 27, of Orlando, Florida, are charged through a federal criminal complaint with conspiracy to destroy an energy facility, Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, and Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski, of the FBI Baltimore Field Office, announced Monday.
Clendaniel spoke to an FBI informant about her plan just last week, according to authorities. Russell is an alleged neo-Nazi figure who authorities say posted locations of substations.
Clendaniel allegedly told an FBI confidential source that she planned to target five substations including in Norrisville, Reisterstown and Perry Hall, according to an affidavit by Special Agent Patrick W. Straub, of the Joint Terrorism Task Force (“JTTF”) in the FBI Baltimore Division.
If they hit a number of them all in the same day, they “would completely destroy this whole city,” and that a “good four or five shots through the center of them … should make that happen,” Clendaniel allegedly said. She further added, “[i]t would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully.”
The affidavit reveals the two defendants were in separate prisons for past crimes and communicated online. In messages, Clendaniel allegedly referenced Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Hitler. She was in a Maryland prison for robbing convenience stores with a machete. Russell was in prison for holding bomb-making materials.
“This planned attack threatened lives and would have left thousands of Marylanders in the cold and dark,” Barron said in a statement. “We are united and committed to using every legal means necessary to disrupt violence, including hate-fueled attacks.”
“The threat posed by domestic violent extremists is evolving and persistent,” Sobocinski said. “The FBI will continue to work closely with our law enforcement and private sector partners to identify and disrupt any potential threat to the safety of our citizens.” (SOURCE)
