FL Man Accused Of Planning Attack On MD Power Grid: Report

TAMPA, FL — An Orlando man who served in the military and founded a neo-Nazi group has been arrested after being accused of planning an attack on Maryland's power grid, officials said Monday, according to multiple reports.

Officials described the accused, a man and a woman, as “racially motivated” extremists, NBC News reported.

Brandon Russell, 27, of Orlando, and Sarah Clendaniel, 34, of Catonsville, Maryland, were expected to make their first appearance Monday in Baltimore federal court on a charge of conspiring to destroy an energy facility, according to the Washington Post. The charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Court records show that speaking to a federal informant on Jan. 29, Clendaniel said, “If we can pull off what I’m hoping … this would be legendary,” the Post reported.

According to the outlet, Russell is a former Florida National Guard member and the founder of the violent neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen, which was started in 2015 in an attempt to spark a race war in the United States.

Former Atomwaffen member Devon Arthurs, who lived with Russell in Tampa, killed two of their roommates in 2017 and later told investigators they had been planning attacks on U.S. nuclear plants and power lines, the Post said.

In 2018, Russell was sentenced to five years in prison for having lethal bomb-making materials in his Florida apartment, CBS News reported.

One of the accused “described how there was a ‘ring’ around Baltimore and if they hit a number of them all in the same day, they ‘would completely destroy this whole city," according to court documents reviewed by the Post.

One of the suspects was arrested in Maryland and another in Florida last week, officials told NBC News.

According to a statement released by Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, the FBI determined that the suspects planned to target several BGE electric substations with gunfire.

"Law enforcement acted before the perpetrators were able to carry out their plan, and there was no damage to any of the substations, nor was any service disrupted," the statement read.

"The substations are not believed to have been targeted out of any connection to BGE or Exelon, or because of any particular vulnerability," BGE added.

Acknowledging that threats have increased in recent years, BGE wrote that the agency has upped investments in grid-hardening capital projects and monitoring and surveillance technologies to work to prevent both physical and cyber-attacks.