After a four-month long investigation, undercover police officers in Las Vegas successfully thwarted members of an anti-government group from kidnapping and killing members of the police force.
David Allen Brutsche, 42, and Devon Campbell Newman, 67, were arrested on Thursday according to KPLR. The duo reportedly attended sovereign government training sessions, shopped for guns, turned an abandoned house into an interrogation unit, and made videos explaining why officers had to die.
"As the investigation progressed, we became aware that these two individuals were extremists in their beliefs and were actively plotting to kidnap and kill at least one southern Nevada police officer," said Lt. Jim Seebok of the department's counterterrorism section.
According to Seebok, Brutsche and Newman were not after a specific officer, but were preparing for a "target of opportunity." However, he said attacking a random officer was likely to happen more than once.
"The suspects further believed once the first kidnapping and execution was accomplished, they would be compelled to keep repeating their actions - kidnapping and killing multiple officers," Seebok said.
As the police conducted their undercover operation, they found that both suspects expressed views in line with the sovereign citizens movement -- a movement that doesn't recognize any form of government -- which the FBI classifies as a domestic terrorist movement as well as "growing domestic threat to law enforcement."
"Sovereign Citizen is an ideology which in and of itself is fine," Seebok said. "It's when they profess that ideology in conjunction with criminal acts in violation of laws or to further their criminal acts (that) they come on our radar."
Both Brutsche and Newman were charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and attempted first degree kidnapping with the use of a weapon.
Officials said that the investigation is ongoing.
