The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sentenced three men to prison for their years-long plot to destroy a power grid in the northwestern United States. The extremists were linked to a Neo-Nazi paramilitary group that extensively studied how to sabotage power substations using automatic rifles in Idaho and surrounding states.
Prosecutors revealed that between 2017 and 2020, the group illegally manufactured and sold firearms and stole military gear. Two of the conspirators served in the US Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina during the planning phase, according to ABC News.
Liam Collins, 25, who lived in New York when he started recruiting members for his Neo-Nazi paramilitary group through a web forum, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting the interstate transportation of unregistered firearms.
Paul James Kryscuk, 38, also from New York, connected with Collins on the forum. Together, they formed a guerrilla organization armed with rifles, which they referred to as a “modern-day SS,” aiming to “take back the land that is rightfully ours,” according to the indictment.
Kryscuk was sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison for conspiracy to destroy an energy facility, as stated by the DOJ. Justin Wade Hermanson, 25, who was stationed at the same Marine Corps base as Collins, received a sentence of one year and nine months for conspiracy to manufacture and ship firearms across state lines.
The group first met in Boise, Idaho after Kryscuk relocated there in 2020, where they filmed live-fire weapons training sessions. Prosecutors said they plotted to take down the Northwestern power grid. Authorities found a handwritten note in Kryscuk’s possession listing 12 locations in Idaho and other states that contained transformers and substations.
Kryscuk and Collins were arrested on November 25, 2020, following arrest warrants issued by the Eastern District of North Carolina. Hermanson was arrested three months later, on January 28, 2021.