Update: Two military veterans—American Brian Mark Lemley and Canadian Patrik Jordan Mathews—have each been sentenced to nine years in prison on gun charges with a "terrorist enhancement." The men were arrested before a pro-gun rally in Virginia last year, the BBC reports. Both are members of a neo-Nazi group called "The Base," which translates to "al-Qaeda" in Arabic. A hidden camera installed at a Delaware apartment recorded the men talking about their hopes for a "civil war." US District Judge Theodore Chuang said Lemley and Mathews' discussions of destroying rail lines, poisoning water supplies, and breaking Dylann Roof out of prison captured the "virulence" of their desire to kill people and bring down the government, the AP reports. Our original story from Jan. 16, 2020, follows:
FBI agents on Thursday arrested a former Canadian Armed Forces reservist and two other men who are linked to a violent white supremacist group and were believed to be heading to a pro-gun rally next week in Virginia’s capital, the AP reports. The three men are members of The Base and were arrested on federal charges in a criminal complaint unsealed in Maryland, according to a Justice Department news release. Tuesday’s complaint charges Canadian national Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27, and Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, of Elkton, Maryland, with transporting a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony.
William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 19, of Denton, Maryland, is charged with “transporting and harboring aliens.” Mathews illegally crossed the US border near Minnesota in August, according to court papers. Lemley and Bilbrough then drove from Maryland to Michigan to pick up Mathews before the three headed to Maryland in late August, investigators said. The three men were believed to be planning to attend the pro-gun rally planned for Monday in Richmond, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation.
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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday declared a state of emergency and banned all types of weapons from the gun rally, citing reports that armed militia groups were planning to attend. The Virginia Citizens Defense League and Gunowners of America filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking an injunction specifically against the ban on firearms. In encrypted chat rooms, members of The Base have discussed committing acts of violence against blacks and Jews, ways to make improvised explosive devices, their military-style training camps and their desire to create a white "ethno-state," according to an FBI agent's affidavit. (More on the arrests here and the weapons ban here.)
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