fbpx

Report: White American Terrorists Planned To Blow Up Baltimore Power Grid Because City Is Black

Report: White American Terrorists Planned To Blow Up Baltimore Power Grid Because City Is Black

blow up Baltimore power grid

Two white supremacists have been arrested for planning to blow up the Baltimore power grid because the city is predominately Black. Admitted neo-Nazi Brandon Clint Russell and a Maryland woman named Sarah Beth Clendaniel were arrested and charged with plotting to attack several electrical substations in the Baltimore area, federal authorities announced on Feb. 6.

The pair’s goal was to commit the attacks “in furtherance of Russell’s racially or ethnically motivated extremist beliefs,” CNBC reported.

Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies disrupted the plot before it could be carried out.

Baltimore is dominated by Black residents, who comprise 60.9 percent of the population. 

Russell, 27, and Clendaniel, 34, are charged with conspiring to destroy an energy facility. They face a maximum possible prison sentence of 20 years if convicted.

“This planned attack threatened lives and would have left thousands of Marylanders in the cold and dark,” Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek Barron in a statement. “We are united and committed to using every legal means necessary to disrupt violence, including hate-fueled attacks.”

Russell lives in Orlando, Florida. Clendaniel, lives in Catonsville, Maryland.

The two far-right extremists are accused of conspiring to “completely destroy Baltimore” and to inflict “maximum harm” by targeting five facilities operated by Baltimore Gas and Electric, which serves 1.2 million customers in central Maryland, The New York Times reported.

“Russell provided instructions and location information,” Thomas J. Sobocinski, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s field office in Baltimore, said at a news conference. “He described attacking the power transformers as the greatest thing somebody can do.”

Clendaniel was to be responsible for carrying out the attacks. She said that she wanted to “completely lay this city to waste,” according to Sobocinsk.

In December, police records state, Russell used encrypted messaging apps to describe his long-term plans to damage the electrical grid, and told a confidential F.B.I. informant that he had recruited Clendaniel. Clendaniel has a criminal record; she served three years for robbing a convenience store with a butcher’s knife.

In May 2017, Russell admitted to police to having launched a local National Socialist group in Tampa, Florida, called the “Atomwaffen,” The New York Times reported.

Photos: A woman believed to be Sarah Beth Clendaniel wears tactical gear containing a swastika, holding a rifle and pistol in a drop holster on her leg, according to charging documents. (FBI) / Brandon Russell of Orlando, Florida, has been charged in connection with a plot to damage power stations near Baltimore (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)