Posted on 02/18/2005 4:12:04 AM PST by calcowgirl
SACRAMENTO – A citizen's tip led investigators to the only person arrested in a series of recent attempted or successful fire bombings of residential, commercial and government buildings east of Sacramento, the FBI said Thursday. Three of the attacks have been claimed by a shadowy eco-terror organization.
Ryan D. Lewis, 21, of Newcastle, admitted stealing and transporting five-gallon plastic buckets full of gasoline and diesel to the site of a Jan. 12 attempted arson of an Auburn office complex that was under construction, the FBI said in an affidavit unsealed Thursday.
Lewis also admitted knowing the arsonists who attempted to burn three homes in a nearby upscale Lincoln subdivision using similar devices Dec. 27, the FBI said. But he denied being involved in the Lincoln arson, or knowing who carried out the Auburn attempt.
His federal public defender, Tim Zindel, declined all comment.
Lewis remains in custody until he can be fitted with an ankle bracelet to track his whereabouts. He is charged with attempting to damage property using fire or explosive, according to the criminal complaint unsealed Thursday at a brief detention hearing. He is charged only in the Auburn incident.
Since Lewis' Feb. 9 arrest, differently constructed incendiary and explosive devices have been found and safely dismantled in Auburn: at the Placer County Courthouse on Sunday and at the Department of Motor Vehicles office on Tuesday. No one has claimed responsibility for those incidents.
The citizen, who was not named, told the FBI that Lewis' father, Greg, had said he suspected his son was involved in the Auburn attempted arson. The younger man lived at home and worked in the family's mandarin orange orchard.
The father confirmed to FBI agents that he was suspicious because of his son's political views, because his pickup truck was gone the night of the attempted arson, and because the next day he found red diesel fuel in the pickup bed, according to the affidavit.
Authorities said that was the accelerant found in five incendiary devices used at Auburn, and in four very similar devices used in the Lincoln attempted arson.
All were dismantled by the Placer County Sheriff's Department bomb squad robot before they did damage.
Letters to several newspapers claiming ELF's responsibility for both incidents had return addresses for "Emma Goldman," an anarchist philosopher who died in 1940, and contained various anarchist phrases and catchwords. Similar phrases were found on a skateboard belonging to Lewis, the FBI said.
On Feb. 7, seven devices ignited in five buildings at a newly constructed apartment complex in Sutter Creek, but six were quickly extinguished by a sprinkler system. The seventh caused damage estimated at $50,000. Graffiti there also claimed ELF's responsibility.
Those devices were much different – made of various-sized milk jugs, some in black garbage bags – and the location is more than 55 miles from the previous two incidents, the FBI noted in an affidavit.
But Lewis' father told the FBI he saw milk jugs in black plastic bags in the back of his son's truck the same day. Lewis also had contracted a rash of poison oak; the Sutter Creek arsonist had walked through a patch of poison oak.
A search warrant unsealed Thursday indicates investigators searched the Lewis family's residence, vehicles, and computer. For the computer, the FBI was looking for evidence it was used to produce the ELF letter sent to newspapers, or that it was used to access any of eight anarchist Internet sites referenced in the letter, an accompanying affidavit says.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is continuing to investigate all five incidents, but has not connected this week's attempted attacks on government buildings to the earlier arsons aimed at buildings under construction.
The Earth Liberation Front is an Internet-connected web of anonymous but like-minded individuals who generally oppose development particularly in environmentally sensitive areas.
The FBI says ELF has caused more than $100 million in damage since 1996, including an arson at a five-story condominium under construction in San Diego in August 2003 that caused $50 million in damages.
"Lewis also had contracted a rash of poison oak; the Sutter Creek arsonist had walked through a patch of poison oak"
Freakin' idiot. SOme environmentalist he is. Unlike any first year Boy Scout, he cannot recognize Poison oak, ivy or sumac! Looks like he spends a lot of time communing with Gaia from his couch watching the boob toob.
ELF = Eco-terrorists, and should be shot on sight. Those captured, should be tried and executed. No appeals. They're subhuman filth.
Apartment buildings in Sutter Creek?! Wow, it's not the sleeply little town I grew up in anymore.
The last time I was in Sutter Creek was in 1994. Just in time for the first ever Amador County stoplight to begin operation!
I moved away in 1982, and was stunned at the changes that had happened by '94.
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