Advertisement

Neo-Nazi found guilty of conspiring to damage a Maryland power substation

By Mike Heuer

Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Brandon Russell, a neo-Nazi leader from Orlando, Fla., faces up to 20 years in prison after a federal jury on Monday found him guilty of conspiring to damage a Maryland energy facility.

"Hate-fueled violence has no place in a civilized society," U.S. District Attorney for Maryland Erek Barron said Tuesday in a Department of Justice news release.

Advertisement

"Brandon Russell went well beyond his First Amendment rights [by] orchestrating a terrorist plot that would have harmed thousands of people," Barron said.

From at least November 2022 to Feb. 2, 2023, Russell conspired to attack transformers at several electrical substations servicing the greater Baltimore area to cause a "cascading failure" of electrical power to the city.

Russell intended for the planned attacks to further his "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist beliefs," the Department of Justice said.

He is a co-founder of the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division and intended for the planned attack to lead to the founding of a white ethnostate.

If Russell had carried out the attack, it could have caused more than $75 million in damages

Russell, 29, faces up to 20 years in prison and has a sentencing hearing scheduled on June 17. He previously served four years in federal prison for explosives violations.

Advertisement

He planned the attack with the help of Sarah Beth Clendaniel,who is serving an 18-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty last year to the planned attacks.

Clendaniel in September was sentenced to 18 years in prison and supervised release for the rest of her life after serving her prison sentence.

Clendaniel also is serving a concurrent sentence of 15 years followed by three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Russell and Clendaniel were arrested in 2023 before they had a chance to follow through on their plan.

Clendaniel, 36, in May pleaded guilty to conspiring to damage or destroy Baltimore's regional power grid.She was a resident of Catonsville, Md., and identified five substations to target.

She told Russell they could fire up to five shots from a high-powered rifle through the center of each substation to destroy them on the same day and cause a cascading power failure that "would completely destroy this whole city."

Clendaniel said she and Russell could "lay this city to waste" if they succeeded, the DOJ said.

Russell's former Florida roommate Devon Arthurs in May 2023 pleaded guilty to killing two of their roommates in 2017 and agreed to serve 45 years in prison.

Advertisement

Arthurs, Russell and murdered roommates Andrew Oneschuk and Jeremy Himmelman co-founded the Atomwaffen Division in Tampa, Fla.

Arthurs eventually converted to Islam and told authorities he killed the two roommates because they planned to commit terrorist attacks, including targeting a nuclear power plant with explosives.

Latest Headlines