Four suspected neo-Nazis charged with conspiracy to damage U.S. electricity grid

Four men who allegedly came to an understanding through a neo-Nazi forum were indicted last week on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack on the power grid in Idaho and the northwestern United States, a declared the Department of Justice (DOJ). Paul James Kryscuk, 35, Liam Collins, 21, Jordan Duncan, 26, and Joseph Maurino, 22, were charged in North Carolina on Friday. According to the DOJ document, Collins and Duncan are former Marines previously assigned to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The defendants are charged with conspiracy to damage the property of an energy facility in the United States, the document said.

If found guilty, Collins, Duncan, Kryscuk and Maurino each face up to 40 years in prison.

According to the charges, the defendants researched, discussed and thoroughly examined a previous attack on the power grid by an unknown group who used assault rifles in an attempt to blow up an electrical substation. Between 2017 and 2020, Kryscuk produced firearms while Collins stole military equipment, including assault rifle magazines, and had them delivered to the other defendants. Meanwhile, Duncan collected information, belonging to the military, regarding firearms, explosives and nerve agents.

The indictment also states that members of the group discussed the use of homemade Thermite, a combination of metallic powder and metallic oxide that burns at over 2,200 degrees Celsius to destroy power transformers. In mid-2020, Collins reportedly asked the group to each purchase 50 pounds (about 23 kg) of Tannerite, a binary explosive that contains aluminum powder and oxidants, and can be used to make Thermite. Later that year, a handwritten list of about a dozen intersections and locations in Idaho and neighboring states was found in Kryscuk’s possession, including locations with components of the northern power grid. -western United States. If the plot had been successful, the damage caused could have amounted to over $ 100,000.

Court documents indicate that Collins and Kryscuk met on the now defunct neo-Nazi online media Iron March and used the forum to recruit others. They also allege that Collins wrote on the forum that he hoped the group would be “a modern day SS”, referring to the infamous Nazi elite military force. The training took place in a desert near Boise, Idaho, Newsweek reported. Propaganda video recorded by the group during the training shows participants dressed in masks associated with the neo-Nazi group AtomWaffen Division firing assault rifles before displaying the “Heil Hitler” sign under a Nazi symbol. The video ends with a message saying “Come home, white man”.