Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Friday that three men had been sentenced to jail for their roles in a scheme to assault an energy facility in order to spread their “violent white supremacist ideology.”
The precise location of the facility was not disclosed by federal authorities; however, court records indicate that agents obtained a handwritten list of roughly twelve locations in Idaho and neighboring states that housed “a transformer, substation, or other component of the power grid for the Northwest United States.”
“As part a self-described ‘modern day SS,’ these defendants conspired, prepared, and trained to attack America’s power grid in order to advance their violent white supremacist ideology,” Garland stated.
For their roles in conspiracy and firearms violations, the three men—Paul James Kryscuk, 38, of Idaho; Liam Collins, 25, of Rhode Island; and Justin Wade Hermanson, 25, of North Carolina—were sentenced to 21 months to 10 years in prison.
According to Garland, the guys got together on the now-closed “Iron March,” a neo-Nazi forum where they researched and talked about past power system attacks.
The recent development in energy strikes throughout the United States by saboteurs seeking to destroy or seriously impair power grids is their sentence. In Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington state, electrical substations have been targeted by vandals or gunshots, resulting in significant power disruptions in one case.
According to Garland, the three men’s goal was to “undermine our democracy” by violence.
Men trained for the attacks by stealing military equipment
The men were part of a five-person 2021 indictment, according to a statement from the Justice Department. They were involved in the fabrication of firearms between 2017 and 2020, the theft of military hardware, and the collecting of intelligence on toxins and explosives for the attack.
Former Marines who were stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Collins and co-defendant Jordan Duncan of North Carolina, took advantage of their rank to get military hardware and intelligence for the scheme unlawfully. They intended to demolish transformers with fifty pounds of homemade explosives, according to the indictment.
In a propaganda video, the guys could be seen brandishing Atomwaffen masks and waving the “Heil Hitler” sign. As a terroristic neo-Nazi organization, Atomwaffen was identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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“In October 2020, a handwritten list of approximately one dozen intersections and places in Idaho and surrounding states was discovered in Kryscuk’s possession, including intersections and places containing a transformer, substation, or other component of the power grid for the northwest United States,” the department stated.
FBI and Justice Department combat assaults on electrical grids
The three prison terms come barely two weeks after a New Jersey man was taken into custody by the FBI in relation to an attack on a power grid carried out by white supremacists.
After Andrew Takhistov allegedly gave an undercover law enforcement official the order to blow up an energy complex in New Jersey with Molotov cocktails while he was fighting in Ukraine, federal authorities detained him at an airport. Takhistov was on his way to enlist in the Russian militia that is defending Ukraine, the Russian Volunteer Corps.
According to the prosecution, Takhistov incited violence against members of minority ethnic and religious groups in order to establish white supremacy.
Domestic extremists have been preparing plans since at least 2020 to physically target energy infrastructure in order to incite public disturbance, the Department of Homeland Security said in 2023. The government wrote that the attacks could endanger American lives, particularly in instances of harsh weather.
