WHAT IS IT? The national power grid
An increase in severe weather events, attacks on power plants, and the drive for green energy highlight the importance of a resilient national power grid.
A Maryland woman charged along with a Florida neo-Nazi leader with conspiring to attack power facilities allegedly had a “wish list” of weapons and said she wanted to attack five substations in the Baltimore area in one day to “completely destroy all of this city”. ”, according to the charging documents.
Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 34, of Catonsville, Maryland, allegedly discussed her plans with an FBI informant just weeks before her arrest.
In January 12 messages via an encrypted communication app, he told the FBI’s “confidential human source” that he “had a terminal illness involving his kidneys and was unlikely to live more than a few months, he confirmed.” that she is a felon and previously stated, but to no avail, that she had attempted to obtain a rifle,” reads an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Patrick W. Straub.
Clendaniel, sending messages under the username “Nythra,” asked the FBI informant to buy him a rifle because he wanted to “achieve something worthwhile” before his death and wanted the rifle “within the next two weeks.” “to “achieve as much as possible before June, at the latest,” the affidavit says.
NEONAZI LEADER CHARGED IN MARYLAND POWER GRID ATTACK ARRESTED YEARS AGO AFTER DOUBLE MURDER OF ROOMMATES
A woman believed to be Clendaniel in tactical gear containing a swastika, holding a rifle, and with a pistol holstered on her left leg. (FBI)
He later told the informant that he would send him a “wish list” of the requested firearms and ammunition. In a recorded voice conversation via the app on January 29, Clendaniel allegedly told the FBI informant that the five substations he planned to attack include those in Norrisville, Reisterstown and Perry Hall, Straub wrote.
The affidavit says that she described how there was a “ring” around Baltimore and if they hit multiple substations in the same day, they would “utterly destroy this entire city.”
Clendaniel added that they needed to “destroy those cores, not just filter the oil…” and that “a good four or five shots into the center of them… should make that happen.”
Sarah Clendaniel, 34, is one of two people suspected of planning to attack five substations in Maryland. (Maryland State Police)
“I’d probably completely waste this city permanently if we could do it successfully,” he said, confirming to the insider that the goal was to complete a “cascading fail.”
The affidavit includes a photo of a woman believed to be Clendaniel wearing tactical gear containing a swastika, holding a rifle and with a pistol holstered on her left leg.
The informant began contacting Clendaniel about the substation attack plan on the instructions of co-defendant Brandon Clint Russell, 27, of Orlando, Florida.
The affidavit says that Clendaniel and Russell had been communicating since at least 2018 through the encrypted app when both were incarcerated in separate facilities.
FBI ARRESTS MAN AND WOMAN WITH ‘EXTREMIST’ VIEWS IN ALLEGED PLOT TO ATTACK THE POWER GRID TARGETING 5 SUBSTATIONS
Sarah Beth Clendaniel is seen in a photo included in the affidavit of Special Agent Patrick W. Straub of the Joint Terrorism Task Force (“JTTF”) in the Baltimore Division of the FBI. (FBI)
Clendaniel told the FBI informant that he had a prior conviction for the armed robbery of a convenience store with a “machete,” which he committed while under the influence of drugs. A police report says he wielded a “large meat cleaver” during the May 2006 robbery. Clendaniel was sentenced to five years in prison in December 2006 with two years suspended in that incident.
Russell, a recognized neo-Nazi leader, served time in prison after police responding to the murders of two of his roommates at his Tampa residence found illegal explosive devices belonging to him. He was not home at the time a third roommate murdered the other two after a dispute over converting to Islam, according to the affidavit.
Brandon Russell seen in a June 7, 2017 mugshot provided by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
Russell, who communicates under the username “Homunculus,” has been speaking with the FBI informant since at least June 2022 about plans to attack critical infrastructure in support of his racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist ideology, according to Straub.
On October 14, 2022, during a conversation about using Mylar balloons to short-circuit a power transformer, Russell allegedly told the FBI informant that “holes in transformers is the best anyone can do.” On November 5, 2022, Russell reportedly stated that the “goal is when most people use electricity at its maximum” and that “to stay on [attacks] could lead to cascading failures costing billions of dollars,” the affidavit reads.
Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for Maryland, announced the arrests and a federal criminal complaint charging Sarah Beth Clendaniel, of Catonsville, and Brandon Clint Russell, of Orlando, with conspiracy to destroy a power facility. (Amy Davis/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
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He also encouraged an attack to be carried out “when there is increased stress on the grid”, such as “when everyone is using electricity to heat or cool their homes.”
Russell asked the informant to assist Clendaniel in the attack and described the woman as 100 percent “serious and trustworthy,” the affidavit says.
The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland and the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office announced Monday that Clendaniel and Russell had been arrested and charged under a federal criminal complaint with conspiracy to destroy a power facility. They could face up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.
