FBI Arrests 3 Alleged Members Of White Supremacist Group Ahead Of Richmond Rally – By Bill Chappell (NPR) / Jan 16 2020
The FBI has arrested three alleged members of The Base — which authorities describe as a “racially motivated violent extremist group” — on charges that range from illegal transport of a machine gun to harboring aliens, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland.
A law enforcement official tells NPR that the three suspected members of The Base had discussed going to a controversial pro-gun rally in Virginia next week.
The three men are Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, of Elkton, Md.; William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 19, of Denton, Md.; and Canadian national Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27, who entered the U.S. illegally last summer. Mathews and Lemley had recently been living in Newark, Del.
The arrests come days before a pro-gun demonstration that’s slated to take place in Richmond, Va., on Monday — and just after Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and banned firearms on the Capitol grounds in Richmond in anticipation of the gun rights demonstration.
“We have received credible intelligence from our law enforcement agencies that there are groups with malicious plans for the rally that is planned for Monday,” Northam said Wednesday afternoon.
Continue to article: https://www.npr.org/2020/01/16/797041211/fbi-arrests-3-alleged-members-of-white-supremacist-group-ahead-of-richmond-rally
Former Canadian military reservist Patrik Jordan Mathews and two Americans face charges related to possessing an illegal assault rifle, as part of an extremist group called The Base. Mathews is seen here in an undated picture from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Winnipeg, Manitoba, last August.
RCMP Manitoba/via Reuters
