A Florida man- Brandon Russell and a Maryland woman – Sarah Clendaniel have been arrested on federal charges of plotting to attack multiple energy substation with the goal of destroying Baltimore, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
Prosecutors said the suspects were motivated by racist extremist ideology as they ‘conspired to inflict maximum harm’ on the power grid with the aim to ‘completely destroy’ Baltimore, U.S. Attorney Erek Barron and a top FBI official said at a Monday morning press conference.
Russell–who is accused of providing instructions and location information for the substations he and Clendaniel allegedly sought to target–is quoted in court documents saying that attacking power transformers is ’the greatest thing somebody can do.’
Clendaniel allegedly told an FBI confidential source she was ‘determined’ to carry out the attacks aimed at Baltimore’s infrastructure, saying, ‘It would lay this city to waste.’
‘Their actions threatened the electricity and heat of our homes, hospitals and businesses,’ said Thomas Sobocinski, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office.
‘The FBI believes this was a real threat.’
Russell, who was the founder of the notorious neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen, was incarcerated when he first met Clendaniel and both were out on probation as they coordinated their plans to attack the energy facilities, according to an affidavit in the case unsealed Monday.
