Bombing Investigation: ATF Raids White Supremacists;Three States In One Day

By J.M. Berger
INTELWIRE.com

An undercover ATF sting raided white supremacists in at least three states on Thursday in an investigation connected to the 2004 letter bombing of Don Logan, an African-American who worked for a diversity program in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms infiltrated "several" undercover agents into white supremacist circles as part of the investigation, according to court records.

In Arizona, Dennis and Daniel Mahon were arrested this week by the ATF on a sealed indictment issued June 16.

In Missouri, Robert Neil Joos was arrested by the ATF on a firearms charge. An ATF affidavit said the arrest resulted from a multi-year investigation into the Logan bombing.

According to the affidavit, Dennis Mahon called Joos on the morning of the bombing.

"The subsequent investigation has focused on several persons involved in the white
supremacist movements throughout the United States," according to the affidavit. The probe included "several ATF undercover agents" and at least one informant.

The informant and one undercover agent made close contact with the Mahon brothers, who described Joos as the owner of a "retreat" used as a training camp by the white supremacist movement.

Undercover operatives subsequently made contact with Joos and toured his facility, according to the affidavit. The retreat included a system of caves which Joos claimed were ideal for evading law enforcement.

"The ATF's investigation of Robert JOOS utilized covert tactics, to include undercover meetings with JOOS while on JOOS' Missouri property," the affidavit states.

ATF conducted a third raid yesterday at the home of Thomas Metzger, one of the chief advocates of "leaderless resistance," in Warsaw, Indiana. Metzger was not arrested.

Metzger told the Warsaw, Indiana-based Times-Union that the raid was linked to the Mahon arrests. Metzger is considered a leader of the White Aryan Resistance, an organization to which the Mahons also reportedly belong.

"I've known them [the Mahon brothers] for years," Metzger told the newspaper. "I've talked to them on the phone, but it was usually about the weather or their invalid mother.

David Paul Hammer, an inmate who spent about two years on death row with convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, said McVeigh told him that German national Andreas Strassmeir and convicted bank robber Michael Brescia planned the Oklahoma City bombing at a white separatist compound known as Elohim City.

An ATF informant named Carol Howe also allegedly heard Mahon and Strassmeir discussing plans to bomb federal buildings, including one in Oklahoma City, prior to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (document). According to court testimony by Howe in 1997, she heard Strassmeir discussing these plans prior to the actual bombing.

Labels: Dennis-Mahon, INTELWIRE-Exclusive, white-supremacists

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink