US ‘white extremist’ trio arrested for anti-govt plot

WASHINGTON: Three alleged members of a US white supremacist group have been arrested on charges of plotting to overthrow the American government and conspiracy to murder two anti-fascist activists.

Police said the trio were members of The Base, which US prosecutors have described as an international network of white nationalists who discuss “committing acts of violence against minority communities.”

"The group was involved in recruiting new members online, meeting to discuss strategy and practicing in paramilitary training camps on a 100-acre (40-hectare) tract in Silver Creek" northwest of Atlanta, Floyd County police said in a statement on Friday.

The men, aged from 19 to 25 and based in the US state of Georgia, sought to “accelerate the downfall of the United States government, incite a race war and establish a white ethno-state,” according to a police affidavit.

They had also surveilled a home in nearby Bartow County with the intent of shooting dead an activist couple who lived there, the report said.

On Thursday, the FBI arrested three members of The Base in Maryland for possessing an illegal automatic weapon. The indictment did not say what the men had planned for the assault rifle and ammunition but US media reported the trio had discussed attending a gun rights rally in Virginia.

The governor of that state had a day earlier declared a “state of emergency” ahead of the rally following threats of violence from white nationalist and militia groups.