Sarah Clendaniel, one of those arrested for planning the electrical attack in Baltimore (United States), holding a rifle and dressed in tactical gear /
The defendants, of neo-Nazi tendencies, intended to cause a large blackout that would incite street riots in order to “destroy” the city
A couple have been arrested in the United States accused of planning the “complete destruction” of Baltimore (Maryland). The two young men were arrested on Sunday, but the Department of Justice has not informed until today of the facts, which it attributes to racial hatred. Two-thirds of the city’s inhabitants are African-American.
The defendants had drawn up a delusional plan, according to which they intended to cause serious damage to Baltimore’s energy infrastructure and leave the population without supply, in order to unleash chaos and street riots, so that the citizens themselves “destroy everything at his step”. The defendants are Clint Russell, 34, and his partner Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 32. Both had been released less than a year from prison. Russell served a five-year sentence for making bombs and Clendaniel for shoplifting with a machete.
The two “were conspiring to inflict maximum damage to the electrical system,” said Tom Sobocinski, who heads the FBI’s Baltimore office. The plan was to fire on several occasions and simultaneously against five stations located at strategic points. According to his forecasts, the facilities would have needed weeks to re-establish supply.
The roadmap that both defendants, with neo-Nazi tendencies, intended to follow, is recorded in several sound recordings and in written documents in which Russell alludes to Hitler, Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, and the author of the 2011 attacks in Norway, Anders Breivik, who have become benchmarks for white supremacy.
Russell, a resident of Florida, was the leader of a neo-Nazi terrorist network formed in 2013 called the Atomwaffen Division, now known as the National Socialist Order. Despite the fact that he was registered by the Police, he had not been persecuted. On social media he boasted of his ideals and predicted his plan of attack as “legendary.” “The greatest thing anyone can do,” according to transcripts obtained by the FBI.
racial inequality
The authorities have stated that the electricity and communication networks have become the target of assaults by sympathizers of these racist movements with the purpose of sowing fear.
Baltimore, with 570,000 inhabitants, is among the ten cities with the largest black population and for years has been a reflection of racial inequality in the country. The city has been ranked as one of the most segregated in the United States, and experts estimate that the poorest black residents live about 20 years less than residents of wealthy white neighborhoods.