Orange County White Nationalist Who Fled The U.S. Arrested

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA — A north Orange County man was arrested this week on charges of allegedly traveling to political rallies in California and Charlottesville, Virginia for the purpose of inciting riots.

Huntington Beach resident Robert Rundo, the alleged co-founder of the neo-Nazi white nationalist group Rise Above Movement, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday, the FBI said. Two other members were arrested on Wednesday morning, an FBI spokesperson reported. According to reports, Rundo crossed into Mexico in early October, and was brought back to the United States this week.

Rundo appeared in federal court in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday morning and was ordered to remain jailed without bail.

According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court (read below), Rundo is accused along with Robert Boman of Torrance, Tyler Laube of Redondo Beach and Aaron Eason of Anza with inciting riots or committing acts of violence in furtherance of a riot. Eason remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Laube and Boman are expected to make their initial appearances in federal court Wednesday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles.

"Throughout 2017, the defendants and other RAM members traveled to political rallies, including in Huntington Beach, California, on March 25, 2017, Berkeley, California, on April 15, 2017, San Bernardino, California, on June 20, 2017, and Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11-12, 2017, " according to a federal affidavit in support of an arrest warrant. "RAM members violently attacked and assaulted counter-protesters at each of these events."

The Rise Above Movement has been described as a "Southern California Based neo-Nazi gang, whose members have been involved in violent activity at protests throughout California in 2017," according to the New York Times.

The latest arrests come on the heels of the arrests and indictments of four other members of RAM -- three of whom are Southland residents -- for allegedly inciting the deadly riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.

Those four defendants -- Benjamin Drake Daley, 25, of Redondo Beach, Thomas Walter Gillen, 24, of Redondo Beach, Michael Paul Miselis, 29, of Lawndale, and Cole Evan White, 24, of Clayton, California -- were arrested on federal criminal complaints in the early morning hours of Oct. 2.

They were indicted about a week later in Virginia on one count each of conspiracy to violate the federal riots act and traveling across state lines to participate in or incite a riot.

According to the New York Times, Rundo's ties to both the ideology of white supremacist groups and the groups themselves have deepened over time. Since the inception of the Rise Above Movement in 2017, "Mr. Rundo has established ties between the RAM and the West Coast chapter of another neo-Nazi movement, a West Coast chapter of the Hammerskins."

Criminal Complaint - Rundo by Ashley Ludwig on Scribd

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City News Service contributed to this report.

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