What Right Wing Extremists?
Some interesting stories from the past month that didn’t get much notice in the national media, on the nonexistent right wing extremist topic:
Clearfield County man pleads guilty to distributing explosives.
Perry Landis admitted that he sold illegal electric blasting caps to undercover police officers.
But he denied that his cabin in rural Clearfield County was a meeting place for militia members, instead saying he used it as a hunting camp.
Mr. Landis yesterday pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of distributing explosive materials. He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry on Sept. 11.
Mr. Landis could face anywhere from six to 24 months in prison based on the recommended sentencing guidelines range. The defense contends the high end of the sentence should only be 12 months, while the prosecution believes Mr. Landis should be sentenced consecutively for each of the two counts for a potential 24-month term.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Picking, Mr. Landis was under investigation, along with several others who expressed anti-government sentiment, by the FBI and Pennsylvania State Police. The investigation, which began in May 2005, led to several militia groups that operated under the umbrella organization Pennsylvania Citizens Militia. Ms. Picking said that Mr. Landis was part of the Brookville Tigers Militia and that the cabin was used for meetings. Undercover officers who infiltrated the group bought blasting caps from Mr. Landis for $2 each in September 2007 and March 2008.
Mr. Landis is one of five defendants charged with related crimes.
Alleged secessionist charged with gun, drug charges.
Federal authorities in Seattle have filed gun and drug charges against an alleged member of a secessionist movement after agents seized a weapons cache that included four silencers, body armor and a fully automatic rifle.
Filings in the case, currently before the U.S. District Court in Seattle, offer glimpses into the “sovereign citizen” movement and, prosecutors contend, militia groups loosely affiliated with it.
Currently free on bond, Andrew Steven Gray was arrested early last month after a lengthy investigation involving a Snohomish County militia shooting range, according to recently unsealed documents filed in U.S. District Court. Gray, a Snohomish man with a previous felony conviction on drug charges, is alleged to have amassed a 21-gun collection at a Monroe storage unit, as well as operated a 300- to 500-plant marijuana grow at his home.
Prosecutors also contend that Gray, 32, has long-standing ties to the sovereign citizen movement, in which adherents believe state and federal law do not apply to them. Through his attorney, Gray has denied membership in any such group; that claim, though, seems to be at odds with a letter sent to the court on Gray’s behalf from a leader in a Snohomish County secessionist movement.
“Regardless of the label applied or the specific form their ideology takes, their ideology fundamentally rests on the belief that the federal courts, federal law, and ultimately the federal government and all of its agencies have no legal authority to impose their will upon a ‘sovereign citizen,’” the FBI special agent heading the case said in court documents.
The bureau launched an investigation into Gray after a paid informant told authorities Gray had been shooting at a facility known as the Militia Training Center, according to statements from the lead investigator, a member of the bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Due to his previous felony drug conviction, Gray is barred from handling firearms.
Parsippany man arrested for weapons cache was converting guns to illegal weapons for profit.
Prosecutors said a Parsippany man who was charged last week with possessing an arsenal of firearms in his home allegedly manufactured and converted guns into illegal automatic weapons at his home and sold them.
Adam Coughlan, 29, who was arrested Thursday in a raid of his Lake Hiawatha home by authorities, also is a flight risk because he may have ties to the “neo-Nazi” underground, Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Bradford Seabury said during a bail hearing. Since the arrest, investigators have been examining Coughlan’s computers, documents and books, and found instruction manuals on how to convert guns into fully automatic weapons that are illegal in New Jersey and “pictures of neo-Nazi type literature,” Seabury said.
More than 40 firearms and high-capacity ammunition were seized during the raid from the Roosevelt Avenue home, and Coughlan was charged with three counts of second-degree possession of assault weapons with a high-capacity detachable magazine, and one count of fourth-degree possession of high-capacity ammunition magazines, authorities said.
A judge raised the bail to $350,000, up from $200,000, without any 10-percent option.
Frank says: