- Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright, both 49, and Patrick Eugene Stein, 47, were charged in federal court with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.
- “According to the complaint, these three defendants conspired to conduct a bombing attack against an apartment complex occupied by men, women and children in the Garden City, Kansas community.”
- The men, who belong to a militia group called “the Crusaders,” said their goal was to “wake people up.”
Three Kansas men were charged Friday with conspiring to detonate bombs in a plot to attack a local Somali community, according to the Department of Justice.
Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright, both 49, and Patrick Eugene Stein, 47, were charged in federal court with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in their plan to blow up an apartment complex that houses a mosque and a large number of members of the Somali community.
“According to the complaint, these three defendants conspired to conduct a bombing attack against an apartment complex occupied by men, women and children in the Garden City, Kansas community,” said John P. Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “Protecting our nation from such attacks, whether they are rooted in domestic or international terrorism, is our highest priority.”
The men, who belong to a militia group called “the Crusaders,” said their goal was to “wake people up.”
“The charges are based on eight months of investigation by the FBI that is alleged to have taken the investigators deep into a culture of hatred and violence,” said Tom Beall, Acting U.S. Attorney of the District of Kansas. “Many Kansans may find it as startling as I do that such things could happen here.”
The defendants’ plans included filling four large vehicles with explosives and detonating them around the apartment complex.
As part of their investigation, law enforcement overheard Stein say the only way “this country’s ever going to get turned around is it will be a bloodbath.”
The men could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
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