12 Arizona Militiamen Accused of Bomb Plot

Twelve members of an Arizona militia unit were arrested Monday on federal charges of plotting to use explosives to blow up government buildings in the Phoenix area, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno announced.

Reno said that the arrests headed off “a potentially dangerous situation” in which the group planned to destroy buildings that housed the Treasury’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Internal Revenue Service, the Secret Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Arizona National Guard and the Phoenix Police Department.

The arrests came three days after a federal grand jury returned a sealed indictment that was based on a six-month investigation into members of the so-called Viper Militia, said Reno and Raymond Kelly, the Treasury Department’s enforcement chief.

The indictment, made public Monday, alleged that the paramilitary group conducted field training exercises in which members made and detonated ammonium nitrate bombs and rockets--the same chemical ingredient found in the April 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing.

The largest number of arrests of self-styled militia members in the nation’s modern history suggested that anti-government activists continue to pose a threat to public safety, despite increasing awareness and efforts by law enforcement officials to crack down on extremists.

Authorities have been focusing on the extreme fringe of the militia movement since the Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. Most recently, federal agents arrested two members of a small Georgia militia group on charges that they planned to build and distribute pipe bombs.

The seven-count Arizona indictment said that several members had trained with machine guns and other automatic weapons. A videotape used for training discussed how explosives could be placed to cause an office building to collapse, the government said.

Reno praised the work of ATF agents who conducted the investigation along with U.S. Customs officers, federal marshals and local and state authorities.

U.S. Atty. Janet Napolitano in Phoenix said that the indictments marked the first time that federal charges of conspiracy to commit civil disorder had been applied to militia groups in Arizona who threatened “the public safety and the safety of others who work in and live around federal buildings.”

The case was built largely on the work of an undercover “state peace officer” working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who infiltrated the group. The reports of the officer, whose identity was not disclosed, were verified by audio and video surveillance recordings on about 20 occasions, officials said.

ATF agent Jose T. Wall said in an affidavit that the Viper Militia was a small organization that was arming itself and practicing bomb-making “to prepare for the resistance of the new world order and to resist the efforts of federal law enforcement to seize their arms or arrest their members.”

Wall said that an oath taken at each meeting of the group read, in part:

“I swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and especially the original and genuine Bill of Rights” and that “I will support and defend my fellow U.S. militiaman.”

Members also regularly swore to “enter into mortal combat against enemies of the U.S. Constitution and U.S. militia to carry out this oath,” according to Wall’s affidavit.

All 12 defendants were charged with conspiracy to manufacture and possess unregistered destructive devices, such as ammonium nitrate fertilizer bombs, and possession of unregistered destructive devices. Six were charged with another count of conspiracy and with furnishing instruction in the use of explosive devices in furtherance of civil disorder.

Three of the 12 were indicted for unlawful possession of machine guns.

Alleging a series of criminal acts that started two years ago, the grand jury said that defendants Dean Carl Pleasant, 27, of Peoria, Ariz., and David Wayne Belliveau, 27, and Ellen Adella Belliveau, 27, of Glendale, Ariz., made a videotape of bombing targets containing descriptions of the outside of buildings, perimeter fences, parking areas and security measures.

“The tape’s narrator identifies supports for [one] building and advises that the building would collapse if the supports were destroyed,” the indictment said.

“The tape advises that the destruction of a water main shown near the building could inhibit firefighting operations if the building was on fire.”

Describing another building that houses the Phoenix Police Department, “the narrator advises that the building would be difficult to take over but that it would be a ‘major political statement’ if it was taken over,” the grand jury reported.

Last December, Gary C. Bauer, 50, of Phoenix, another defendant, showed members of the group a rocket he was building and “advised that black powder was the preferred propellant” to be used, the indictment said.

Similar meetings and field training exercises continued during the last six months, authorities said.

Others charged were identified as Henry Alfred Overturf, 37, Donna Star Williams, 44, and Christopher Alan Floyd, 21, all of Phoenix; Walter Earl Sanville, 37, of Scottsdale; Randy Lynne Nelson, 32, of Peoria; and Finis Howard Walker, 41, Charles Franklin Knight, 47, and Scott Jeffery Shero, 30, all of Glendale.

Upon conviction, most defendants would face maximum punishment of 15 years in prison and fines of $750,000.