13th arrest in alleged anti-government plot
Undercover work helped expose Arizona paramilitary group
July 2, 1996
Web posted at: 11:30 a.m. EDTWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thirteen people have now been arrested in an alleged paramilitary plot to bomb state and federal government buildings in Arizona and a search for other suspects is continuing, authorities announced Tuesday.
Federal indictments released Monday in Phoenix, Arizona, said 12 people were arrested but Raymond Kelly, Undersecretary for Enforcement for the Treasury Department, announced during a live interview on CNN that there was a 13th suspect. (113K AIFF or WAV sound) He did not say whether that person was a man or woman.
According to indictments handed up Monday, the first 12 arrested -- 10 men and two women -- had been training for two years to destroy several buildings, including those housing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
All 13 suspects are charged with conspiracy to commit civil disorder. Some are also charged with firearms violations and the illegal possession of weapons. All are associated with the "Viper Militia," a previously known group, a law enforcement source said.
Police seized up to 400 pounds (180 kg) of ammonium nitrate and other bomb-making components in one of three homes that were raided by police Monday in suburban Phoenix. CNN affiliate KPNX in Phoenix reported that the explosives were detonated late Monday near Luke Air Force Base in the Arizona desert. (100K QuickTime movie)
Investigators stopped searching at one location after discovering picric acid, a substance used in grenades during World War II. Because it is dangerous, it was decided to wait for daylight Tuesday to continue the search.
Revealing video
The investigation involved the use of an inside informant and later an undercover police agent, a source told CNN's Mark Feldstein. The infiltration already was under way, the source said, when a hunter told state and federal fish and wildlife officials that gunmen dressed in camouflage warned him to stay off a service road in Arizona's Tonto National Forest.
The confrontation, which took place last November, was one of several developments that led to this week's arrests, the source said.
Documents revealed as a result of the undercover work tell of training videos showing government buildings, their security features and the best places to put explosives to bring the buildings down, U.S. Attorney for Arizona Janet Napolitano said Monday. (238K AIFF or WAV sound)
On a videotape made in 1994 a militia member made a comment along the lines of: "If law enforcement ever gets a copy of this, we're done," the CNN source said.
Group members in the remote national forest were "conducting exercises, using explosives and firing fully automatic weapons," Kelly said. "I think they believed they wouldn't be seen." He said some search warrants had not yet been "fully executed ... so it's possible there could be more arrests."
"Mayhem"
Napolitano said there was no indication the alleged "Viper Militia" plot was connected with last year's deadly bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City or the sabotage of an Arizona railroad track last October. But Kelly said the group's stockpile of weapons and other ammunition created the "wherewithal to create mayhem." (163K AIFF or WAV sound)
Some area residents expressed surprise, saying those arrested were good neighbors.
But in Phoenix, Ellen Daniel stood in her front yard and watched as suspected explosives were removed from the home of suspect Gary Bauer, one of her neighbors. "We left New York City to get away from crime," she said. "I'm going back to the Bronx."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related story:
- Feds reveal plot to destroy government buildings - July 1, 1996
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