By james art A former U.S. Marine was sentenced to seven years in prison Monday for his part in a white supremacist plot to destroy energy facilities.
Jordan Duncan, 29, pleaded guilty in North Carolina in June to aiding and abetting the manufacture of a firearm.
Duncan and four other men, including two other former Marines, were arrested in 2020 in connection with what authorities described as a neo-Nazi plot to wreak havoc by targeting the power grid.
“We have now brought to justice all five defendants involved in the self-described ‘modern SS’ that conspired, prepared and trained to attack America’s electrical grid in the name of a violent ideology of white supremacy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in statement.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the group was “inspired by racially motivated violent extremism”.
“If the defendants had been able to carry out an attack, it could have caused suffering to thousands of American citizens,” Ray said.
The other four defendants were previously sentenced to prison terms ranging from 21 months to 10 years.
According to court documents, two members of the group were active in Iron March, a neo-Nazi online forum, until it was shut down in 2017. They also recruited the other three people involved.
The group stockpiled firearms and created a live-shooting training video in the desert near Boise, Idaho, which ends with the phrase “Go home, white man” as the final shot.
Power grid components in the northwestern United States were listed as potential targets in handwritten notes found in the possession of one of the conspirators.