Five “racially motivated violent extremists” with ties to the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen, including its current leader, have been arrested by the FBI, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Of those, four were charged in the U.S. District Court in Seattle for allegedly sending racist and anti-Semitic threats to journalists and activists around the country and the fifth was charged in Virginia for his alleged participation in a swatting campaign.
Wednesday’s news marks the biggest bust of the notorious group since it was founded five years ago, by a group of young, white men who met on the neo-Nazi site Iron March. Since then, the group has been linked to at least five murders in the U.S.
The defendants charged in Seattle are Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, from Redmond, Washington; Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, from Spring Hill, Florida; Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queens Creek, Arizona; and Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas.
Cole, the current leader of the racist group, was also wanted by local authorities who issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of possessing firearms in violation of an extreme risk protection order.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Eastern District of Virginia’s U.S. Attorney’s office announced the arrest of John Cameron Denton, 26, the former leader of Atomwaffen, who goes by “Rape,” for his alleged involvement in swatting a historically black church, investigative journalists, and a Cabinet official.
