Federal agents arrested two men in Michigan on Thursday as part of a continuing crackdown on white supremacy groups.
FBI agents arrested Justen Watkins, 25, of Bad Axe, the self-proclaimed leader of the Base, and Alfred Gorman, 35, of Taylor, during a pair of raids. The arrests come three weeks after a plan was thwarted to kidnap the governor of Michigan by extremists, and are not part of the kidnapping plot.
The two are linked to a 2019 incident involving a Michigan family who was terrorized by the men, who shared their address with the Base, according to AG Dana Nessel.
Nessel’s office charged the men with several felonies, including gang membership, a 20-year felony, using a computer to commit a crime and unlawful posting of a message. The charges were filed in Washtenaw County District Court, the location of the alleged Dexter incident.
State and federal investigations have focused on the Base, a small Neo-Nazi network that started to emerge in mid-2018.
Three men linked to the Base were charged with conspiring to kill members of a militant anti-fascist group, police in Georgia announced in mid-January, a day after three other members were arrested on federal charges in Maryland and Delaware.
The FBI has stated that the Base is a paramilitary group that has proclaimed war with minority communities in the U.S. and abroad. The extremist group is focused on training its members for violence, not propaganda, seeking societal collapse and a race war.
See the Detroit News.
