A federal court in Gainesville, Georgia, has accused four senior citizens in planning to buy explosives and create biological weapons to organize terrorist attacks against U.S. government officials, local media reported.
Frederick Thomas, 73, Dan Roberts, 67, Ray Adams, 67, and Samuel Crump, 65, will remain in custody until at least next week, without the right of being released on bail. Thomas, the self-proclaimed ring leader with an oxygen tank and mask who could hardly walk with a cane, was arrested in a local WalMart.
According to CNN, a pretrial hearing is planned on November 9. U.S. media noted that the four were planning attacks against several U.S. officials and agencies in many cities throughout the country, as well as against the U.S. government, which, according to the defendants, had gone out of control.
In court documents, the FBI said the men referred to themselves as “a covert group” and met several times throughout the year to discuss killing federal employees with rifles, explosives and ricin, a potent poison made of plant material which is made based on castor oil.
Undercover FBI agents were able to intercept the group and provided information about the preparation of their crimes.
