Man arrested in alleged neo-Nazi-inspired plot to destroy Nashville energy facility: DOJ
Published By admin with Comments 0
A 24-year-old Tennessee man has been arrested and charged with allegedly plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction in a neo-Nazi-inspired plot to destroy an energy facility near Nashville, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Skyler Philippi allegedly planned to attack Nashville’s power grid with a drone armed with explosives after conducting extensive research into how such an attack could serve to “shock the system,” as he reportedly relayed to one FBI confidential source who became aware of his plotting, prosecutors said.
The FBI first began investigating Philippi in June after a confidential source who was in touch with him reported to the FBI his alleged desire to commit a mass shooting at a YMCA near Columbia, Tennessee, according to the complaint.
Philippi allegedly repeatedly espoused his adherence to white supremacist and accelerationist ideologies which promote the idea that a destabilizing terrorist attack on something like the nation’s energy sectors could serve to incite unrest that leads to civil war, according to prosecutors.
“I definitely want to hit Nashville, like one hundred percent, I want to get Nashville,” Philippi allegedly said in one meeting recorded by the undercover agents, according to the complaint. “I also know Louisville pretty God damn well, since I lived there. I spent about five months scouting out every single place [power station] and even coming up with a game plan to hit it as fast as I could. I had whole maps made, printed out on paper, to actually do that.”
Content retrieved from: https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-arrested-alleged-neo-nazi-inspired-plot-destroy-energy-facility/story?id=115487810.
