Posted on 04/27/2007 5:57:58 AM PDT by Howdy there
Simultaneous raids carried out in four Alabama counties Thursday turned up truckloads of explosives and weapons, including 130 grenades, an improvised rocket launcher and 2,500 rounds of ammunition belonging to the small, but mightily armed, Alabama Free Militia.
Six alleged members of the Free Militia also were arrested by federal authorities and are being held without bond.
Investigators said the DeKalb County-based group had not made any specific threats or devised any plots, but was targeted for swift dismantling because of its heavy firepower. The militia, which called itself the Naval Militia at one point, had enough armament to outfit a small army.
"We classify these groups as violent and anti-government," said Jim Cavanaugh, who supervises the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operations in portions of the South. "They stockpile things and live off a fear, a paranoia they're going to need weapons and explosives because some event is going to happen when they will need them."
"Any time you have a self-appointed colonel or a self-appointed major and they've got weapons and explosives, it is a recipe for tragedy," Cavanaugh said.
The ATF investigation, launched about seven weeks ago, climaxed Thursday with more than 150 federal, state and local law enforcement officers carrying out raids in DeKalb, Marshall, Etowah and Jefferson counties beginning about 6 a.m.
The massive operation forced the closing of Collinsville High School on U.S. 11 because of traffic concerns. In Trussville, authorities rented a U-Haul truck to cart away the load of explosives and weapons from a house.
Agents encountered booby traps at one site. They found trip wires and two hand grenades rigged as booby traps at the Collinsville camper home of 46-year-old Raymond Dillard, who holds titles of both militia major and fugitive from justice on an unrelated federal case in Mobile.
"We were prepared," Cavanaugh said. "We suspect booby traps with these types of groups."
Arrested and detained in federal custody were Dillard, also known as Jeff Osborne, 46, of Collinsville; Adam Lynn Cunningham, 41, of Collinsville; Bonnell Hughes, 57, of Crossville; Randall Garrett Cole, 22, of Gadsden; James Ray McElroy, 20, of Collinsville; and Michael Wayne Bobo, 30, of Trussville.
All but Bobo are charged with conspiracy to make a firearm, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Bobo is charged with being a drug user in possession of a firearm, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The six men appeared Thursday afternoon in Birmingham's federal courthouse before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Armstrong Jr. The men were being held Thursday night in the Shelby County jail.
According to the criminal complaint, ATF and the Alabama State Fire Marshal's Office used a confidential informant to infiltrate the militia, using video and audio recordings to document their grenade-making exploits. The informant met Dillard at a DeKalb County flea market called "Trade Day" in the late fall and Dillard told him about the Free Militia.
The informant was eventually accepted into the organization and given the title "sergeant major." In the following weeks, the informant provided agents details of the group's activities.
In one instance, the complaint described how Dillard grabbed one of four grenades from a coffee table, quickly put a fuse and shotgun-type primer inside and said, "That's how easy it is. This one's ready to go."
Guns and ammo:
All six men were taken into custody without incident.
"We took them by surprise," said DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris.
Authorities wouldn't pinpoint a leader, but said Dillard called himself the major. In addition to the booby traps, authorities recovered a long gun and a pistol from his home.
Recovered from Cunningham's Collinsville home were stolen commercial fireworks, improvised hand grenades, fuse assemblies and a half-dozen guns. At Hughes' Crossville home, agents found 100 improvised hand grenades, 70 improvised hand grenades fired from the 37 mm rocket launch, a submachine gun and two silencers.
An SKS rifle was found at McElroy's home.
In Jefferson County, authorities said they had to rent a truck to handle the bomb-making material from Bobo's home, as well as 2,500 rounds of ammunition and 12 guns.
Bobo was living with his adoptive parents in the Lancshire Brentwood neighborhood in Trussville, a fairly new subdivision near the Cahaba Project with tree-lined streets and brick homes that cost upward of $600,000. He worked for his family's pest control company.
His red pickup truck, usually parked at the house, displays bumper stickers such as "Welcome to the South, Now Go Home," "The Second Amendment: `You do not know you need it until they come to take it away' - Thomas Jefferson" and "Work Harder, Millions on Welfare Depend on You."
Common profile:
In general, militias and patriot movements are anti-government and given to conspiracy theories and paranoia, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center. The organization keeps track of hate groups and their activities throughout the country. They also are known for stockpiling illegal weapons and even manufacturing them, he said.
The militia movement in Alabama and the rest of the country hit a peak in the mid-1990s, as the groups rallied after the bloody 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the 1992 shoot-out in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, between former Green Beret Randy Weaver and federal agents. The number of militia or "patriot" groups in the United States dwindled from a high of almost 900 in the mid-1990s to fewer than 200 by 2005.
A combination of factors, including the Sept. 11 attacks, caused many groups to draw back from the extreme acts of Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph or Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.
"It became less popular for someone to rail against America," Cavanaugh said. "It's not so sexy for them to be around, and therefore they don't get a lot of public attention."
Cavanaugh said militia groups still pop up from time to time, and authorities' goal is to intercept them before the threat becomes a tragedy.
"Whatever their paranoia was, whatever their reasons were, we think we've taken their weapons, the majority of them, certainly," Cavanaugh said. "The good news is hopefully today Alabama is free of the Alabama Free Militia."
I believe they are classified as "munitions", not "arms".
Paranoia is characterized as a mental disorder.
The "journalist" who wrote this was sloppy. He states initially they were raided and arrested because they we're perceived as a threat. That's alarming. He (or she) then later points out that they were charged for violating laws (manufacturing prohibited items).
I'm a gun lover (and own many), but I'd be a little concerned if these folks lived in my neighborhood.
Actually a grenade (homemade or military) is classified as a destructive device. No different than a pipe bomb.
I support the 2nd amendment and I don’t feel paranoid or even upset by the fact that I cannot possess grenades or pipe bombs with my firearms.
My firearms can be used for defense, hunting, or target shooting. I really see no legitimate use for explosive devices designed to create shrapnel.
That is the problem with articles like this. The author obviously had a slant on the story that did not focus on the important things we would all understand such as:
IED’s - yes, the same thing they use in Iraq albeit on a smaller scale.
Marijuana grow operation - not that big a deal to me but it’s still illegal
Boobytraps??? - The response on this board is almost always unanimous when a pit bull maims or kills a child. I wonder how many would defend a “militia member” if a child or firefighter stumbled on one of these things?
I'm sure that wasn't the writer's intention at all. /sarc
Besides, everyone knows that all Conservatives are total whack jobs that see Communists behind every tree, run guns for a living, sleep with a .45 under their pillows, abuse their wives, and kick puppies for fun. At least, everyone that this "journalist" knows, knows that. :-)
It’s the grenades. That’s what got them in trouble.
I think the journalist’s sloppiness comes from ignorance.
Many of them have zero familiarity with the respectable traditions of responsible gun ownership in this country or the laws governing it. To them, possessing legally acquired firearms is just as much a crime as making illegal pipe bombs and hand grenades.
That’s the way they have been indoctrinated in school and attempts at providing some responsible gun education to redress the balance are always strenously resisted.
While I concur with your sentiment and got a chuckle out of it I often feel as a law enforcement officer that I am an endangered animal on this board.
I am conservative but there are many freepers who seem to view me as the enemy. You can read almost any thread regarding drugs or firearms on this board and find plenty of statements that fit right into the stereotype you correctly suggested.
As long as you're not one of those cops that acts like a 'roided up ten-year-old, you'll get plenty of respect around here. My father is a retired 30-year police officer and he is disgusted by much of the new breed of "law enforcement" officers.
Being a conservative, pragmatic guy....I get along pretty well with them.
Whenever people say that they don't have respect for the police, I always wonder what the entire story is....did they have a single bad experience, or is there a skeleton in the closet that they'd like to keep there?
I missed the Dem debate, did they really promise that?
This could have just as easily been said by General Cornwallis...
I don't see "ATF" in my copy of the Second Amendment. How did our Founders register the cannons that they took by force from Fort Ticonderoga and arranged around Boston Harbor to evict their tyrannical government's navy? Or did they just forget to register them?
What do you suppose was the object of the SALT talks with the Soviet Union? As in, "Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty"?
You mean that you see no legitimate "sporting use" for explosive devices designed to create shrapnel, don't you?
Every military force on earth sees a need for grenades. If you are ever forced to protect your community from an invader, you will no doubt support the use of such devices. If you are fortunate, your own army will be the ones using such devices.
If you are unfortunate, your own army will be the invading force.
Still learning facts of Life...???
"Munitions" is a synonym for "arms".
The DoD definition is:
"Material used in war, especially weapons and ammunition." That's also the dictionary definition;. So unless you think that H.R. 1022 is Constitutionally Correct, I'd say that you'd best support the notion that grenades, and other weapons, are "arms", the keeping and bearing of which is protected by the Second Amendment.
Thesaurus.com gives this definition and synonyms for "arms":
Definition: weaponry
Synonyms: accoutrements, armaments, artillery, equipment, firearms, guns, munitions, ordnance, panoply, weapons
Interestingly it also gives for "arms control":
Definition: weapons reduction
Synonyms: arms limitation, arms reduction, defense cuts, gun control, nonproliferation
We can pretty confident that the term "arms" included cannon and cannon armed warships at the time the second amendment was passed. Grenades were thrown by grenadiers as early as the 17th century, and probably much earlier even though the terms had not yet been invented, there is some history to indicate that grenades were in use as early as the Ming Dynasty in China. They are weapons that an individual soldier can carry (bear) and use. They are arms. True they are not guns, but then neither is a sword, which was the metaphor of choice of the many of the founding fathers, for example:
"The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people"
(Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788)"
“”volunbeer said: “I really see no legitimate use for explosive devices designed to create shrapnel.”
You mean that you see no legitimate “sporting use” for explosive devices designed to create shrapnel, don’t you?””
Of course..... I was in the infantry for many years. I have seen a couple of fatal pipe bombings as well. They ain’t pretty!
volunbeer said: "Of course..... "
Does the right of the people to keep and bear arms only include sporting purposes? Is all else to be completely controlled by government? Is that what you believe our Founders intended?
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