Current Events > This is not ideal, probably

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...One of the suspects, Devon Arthurs, 18, said the victims were his roommates, and members of a neo-Nazi group called the Atomwaffen Division. Arthurs said that hed decided to leave the group, and that hed killed the men to keep them from carrying out what he said were their plans for violence.

The second suspect detained by police, Brandon Russell, also lived in the apartment. Russell told the authorities hed just returned home from a weekend of training with the Florida Army National Guard. And then Russell revealed something that should have set off alarms among federal investigators assigned to track the growing threat from armed, violent right-wing extremists. He said, and the police quickly confirmed, that the single-car garage attached to the apartment was full of explosives.

Explosives experts from the Tampa Police Department and the local FBI field office soon found components of a crude pipe bomb as well as radioactive materials. The search turned up ammonium nitrate and nitromethane, the mixture used by McVeigh to destroy the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. There were sacks of explosive precursors, including potassium chloride, red iron oxide and potassium nitrate. There were homemade fuses fashioned from brass 5.56 mm rifle cartridges. In a closet, they found two Geiger counters.
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At Tampa police headquarters, investigators put Arthurs and Russell in separate interrogation rooms. They wanted to know about the killings, about the neo-Nazi group and about the explosives.

Arthurs said the apartment had served as a nerve center for Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist organization of 60 to 70 people that has spoken openly of its hopes of igniting race war in the United States. If the authorities could access the groups encrypted online chats, Arthurs said, itd be easy to track down each member. The interrogation was videotaped, and a recording was obtained by ProPublica and Frontline.

The things that theyre planning were horrible. Theyre planning bombings and stuff like that on countless people, theyre planning to kill civilian life, Arthurs said. A detective asked if Atomwaffen had drawn up a list of specific targets. Power lines, nuclear reactors, synagogues, things like that, Arthurs replied.

Im telling you stuff that the FBI should be hearing, Arthurs said, adding that he thought lives could be saved.

To this day, it is unclear if the FBI talked with Arthurs or what steps it took to shut down Atomwaffen. The FBI declined repeated requests to discuss the case. But this much is clear: Within months of Arthurs warnings, Atomwaffen members or associates had killed three more people.
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While Arthurs was taken to the county jail on homicide charges, police and FBI agents released Russell, who claimed that he used the explosives to power model rockets. An officer even drove Russell back to the murder scene so he could retrieve his car.

What happened next could well have been a disaster. Within hours, Russell acquired an AR-15-style assault rifle and a bolt-action hunting rifle. He loaded homemade body armor and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition into his car, and set off for the Florida Keys with another Atomwaffen member. He was eventually arrested by sheriffs deputies in Monroe County. They were shocked by the weapons and ammunition they found in the car. There was no luggage. No food. Russell didnt seem prepared for an extended trip, they said.

When we found all the weapons, we were convinced that we had just stopped a mass shooting, recalled Deanna Torres, one of the deputies who captured Russell, who would eventually plead guilty to federal explosives charges.

Within hours, Russell acquired an AR-15-style assault rifle and a bolt-action hunting rifle. He loaded homemade body armor and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition into his car, and set off for the Florida Keys with another Atomwaffen member. He was eventually arrested by sheriffs deputies in Monroe County. They were shocked by the weapons and ammunition they found in the car. There was no luggage. No food. Russell didnt seem prepared for an extended trip, they said.