LAS VEGAS (AP) — Three Nevada men with ties to a loose movement of right-wing extremists advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in what authorities say was a conspiracy to spark violence during recent protests in Las Vegas.
Federal prosecutors say the three white men with U.S. military experience are accused of conspiring to carry out a plan that began in April in conjunction with protests to reopen businesses closed because of the coronavirus and later sought to capitalize on protests over the death of a Minneapolis man in police custody.
They were arrested Saturday on the way to a protest in downtown Las Vegas after filling gas cans at a parking lot and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press.
The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Wednesday said they self-identified as part of the “boogaloo” movement, which U.S. prosecutors said in the document is “a term used by extremists to signify coming civil war and/or fall of civilization.”
BY JOHN BOWDEN
Law enforcement says one of the men arrested, 40-year-old William Loomis, expressed plans to an undercover agent to target a power substation. Undercover agents first made contact with the men at a rally earlier this year against coronavirus restrictions put in place by Nevada's state government, authorities said.
“Loomis stated he wanted to target a power substation and wanted to throw a type of ‘firebomb’ or incendiary to cause destruction,” reads the federal complaint, according to the AP.