FBI: Neo-Nazis Planned to Attack Mexican Consulate
Two members of a new white supremacist group in Minnesota discussed killing former associates in the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) and using homemade napalm in a truck bomb attack on the Mexican consulate in St. Paul, newly released court documents say.
Joseph Benjamin Thomas, 42, of Mendota Heights, Minn., and Samuel James Johnson, 31, of Austin, Minn., both former NSM members, were involved in the plot, an FBI affidavit says.
The FBI investigation of the pair began in January 2010 and involved the use of a tracking device secretly placed on Thomas’ car on Aug. 29, 2011, allowing agents to track his travels and identify potential co-conspirators. On Jan. 23 of this year, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled law enforcement officers must obtain search warrants to plant GPS tracking devices on suspects’ vehicles, the FBI sought and obtained court authorization to continue monitoring Thomas vehicle, the affidavit says.
Thomas and Johnson were arrested in April on federal drug and firearms charges and have not been charged with any terrorism-related crimes. Prior to the planned May 1 attack on the Mexican consulate in St. Paul, Minn., officials there were notified of the potential threat and increased security, according to a news report today by The Associated Press.