3 White Extremists With 'The Base' Indicted On Weapons Charges

MARYLAND — Two Maryland men and a Canadian have been indicted by federal grand juries in Delaware and Maryland charging the trio who purportedly belong to the violent white extremist group “The Base” with weapons and immigration crimes, prosecutors said Tuesday. The men were arrested earlier this month before they could attend a Jan. 20 gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia, a law enforcement official said.

The federal indictments charge Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, of Elkton, Maryland, and Newark, Delaware; and Canadian national Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27, currently of Newark, Delaware, with firearms and alien-related charges. A third alleged member of “The Base,” William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 19, of Denton, Maryland, is charged with alien-related charges. The Delaware indictment also charges Lemley and Mathews with destroying their cellular telephones with intent to obstruct justice.

Prosecutors charge that Lemley and Bilbrough transported and harbored an illegal alien — the Canadian Mathews — from Nov. 4, 2019 through Jan. 16, 2020. Further, Lemley and Mathews are charged with being or aiding-and-abetting an alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition, with illegal possession of a machine gun, with illegal possession of an unregistered machine gun, and with destroying their cell phones with the intent to obstruct justice, specifically an investigation conducted by the FBI.

According to the criminal complaint, members of The Base used encrypted chat rooms to discuss recruitment, creating a white ethno-state, making improvised explosive devices, and committing acts of violence against African-Americans and Jewish-Americans. Lemley previously served as a cavalry scout in the Army, and as of August 2019, Mathews, a Canadian citizen in the United States illegally, was a combat engineer in the Canadian Army Reserve, officials said in a statement.

Related: 3 GA Men Hoped To Start Race War, Overthrow Government: FBI

The Maryland arrests came just two days before three Georgia men were arrested on charges that they are also involved in The Base with plans to overthrow the government and murder a Bartow County, Georgia, couple.

Prosecutors said that in August 2019, Mathews unlawfully crossed from Canada into the United States near the Manitoba/Minnesota border; Lemley and Bilbrough allegedly drove from Maryland to Michigan to pick up Mathews, and they all arrived in Maryland on Aug. 31.

Last month, Lemley and Mathews made a functioning assault rifle, and the trio attempted to manufacture a controlled hallucinogenic drug, DMT, at Lemley and Mathews's apartment in Delaware, authorities said in charging documents.

According to the affidavit, earlier this month Lemley and Mathews purchased about 1,650 rounds of 5.56mm and 6.5mm ammunition; went to a gun range in Maryland where they shot an assault rifle; and retrieved plate carriers to support body armor.

If convicted, Lemley and Bilbrough each face a maximum sentence of five years for transporting and harboring certain aliens, and 10 years for conspiracy to do so. Lemley also faces a maximum of five years in prison for transporting a machine gun in interstate commerce, and a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for disposing of a firearm and ammunition to an illegal alien. Lemley and Mathews each face a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for transporting a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony offense. Finally, Mathews faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for being an alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition.