PHOENIX — An Arizona man was arrested and charged in federal court on Wednesday for allegedly conspiring to threaten and intimidate journalists and activists.
Johnny Roman Garza, a 20-year-old man from Queen Creek, was among the four "racially motivated violent extremists" who were charged with conspiracy to mail threatening communications and commit cyberstalking.
The other suspects charged in the complaint were 24-year-old Cameron Brandon Shea from Redmond, Washington, 24-year-old Kaleb Cole from Montgomery, Texas, and 20-year-old Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe from Spring Hill, Florida.
They were charged in the U.S District Court in Seattle.
“These defendants sought to spread fear and terror with threats delivered to the doorstep of those who are critical of their activities,” U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran said in a statement.
One of the suspects' targets was Mala Blomquist, editor of the magazine "Arizona Jewish Life."
Blomquist said she found a threatening poster that said "Your Actions Have Consequences ... Our Patience Has Its Limits" glued to a window of her home.
"It has death images, basically, and then on the bottom in small print it says, 'You've been visited by your local Nazis,'" she said. "It's terrifying to think that someone actually walked onto your property and the fact that it wasn't just taped on my window, it was glued to my window."
Blomquist said she didn't leave home for a week after the FBI in Phoenix told her she was being targeted by the neo-Nazi group.
But there's one thing the neo-Nazis don't know about Blomquist.
"I'm not Jewish," she said. "It doesn't matter who you are. They're just hating to hate."
A journalist with the Arizona Association of Black Journalists was also targeted, but a spokesperson said the group doesn't know who that person is.
According to the criminal complaint, the suspects are accused of conspiring on an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate, primarily those who are Jewish or journalists of color.
Cole and Shea are accused of creating the posters, which included Nazi symbols, masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails, and threatening language.
Those posters were given to Atomwaffen members, who then printed and delivered or mailed the posters to journalists or activists the group was targeting.
In the Seattle area, the posters were mailed to a TV journalist who had reported on Atomwaffen and to two individuals associated with the Anti-Defamation League.
In Tampa, the group targeted a journalist but delivered the poster to the wrong address.
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