Suspected Militia Members Arrested, Freed

Los Angeles police on Friday arrested five suspected militia members who allegedly were planning acts of “domestic terrorism” and were armed with enough weapons and ammunition to “wage war.”

LAPD Cmdr. Tim McBride described the suspects as “a threat to Southern California. They are anti-government and there’s a sense that they were planning multiple acts of terrorism.”

Despite the danger police said they posed, four of the five suspects were released on bail late Friday. The remaining suspect was being held on a no-bail warrant from a prior weapons-related charge, police said.

The arrests followed a two-year investigation launched by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Anti-Terrorist Division after the Oklahoma City bombing. Police believe the men--whom McBride described as “filled with hate”--were part of a “local militia cell” that is part of a larger organization.

Police said the “individuals were planning domestic terrorism in the Southern California community.”

Serving search warrants in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, investigators Friday seized more than 100 weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Among the items seized were a grenade launcher, fully automatic assault rifles, night vision goggles, camouflage suits, gas masks, rappelling gear, laser scopes, flak jackets and ammunition for a .50-caliber machine gun.

“These are the type of guns that kill people, not the ones that are used to hunt animals,” McBride said, adding that the suspects were “bent on destruction.”

One police officer said it was evident that the suspects’ weapon of choice was a .223-caliber assault rifle because of the number of those guns in the cache.

“All we can say is that lives were saved and property was saved” and that the militia cell was “brought to its knees,” he said.

Capt. Joseph Curreri, who heads the Anti-Terrorist Division, said the suspects trained bi-monthly, practicing their tactics and marksmanship on human-like dummies made to look like white, black, Latino and Asian males. Police displayed photographs of the suspects training at a location they declined to identify.

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The suspects “looked just like the North Hollywood bank robbers, but they were much better trained, much better disciplined,” Curreri said referring to the pair of armor-clad bandits who had a shootout with police after a bank robbery Feb. 28.

The suspects were identified as Glenn Yee, 43, of San Dimas, a reserve Irwindale police officer; Alvin Ung, 31, of Ontario; Mark Grand, 31, and Timothy Swanson, 43, both of Los Angeles; and Raymond Durand, 33, of Santa Clarita.

Yee, Ung and Grand walked free after posting $15,000 bail each, a police spokesman said. Swanson was let go after posting $10,000 bail, said Officer Don Cox, an LAPD spokesman. Durand remained in custody.

“That’s the way the bail system is set up,” Cox said. “We had no control over it.”

All were charged with weapons violations, police said.

Yee has been a reserve officer with the small Irwindale Police Department since January 1991.

“He is a reserve officer. What can I say?” said Chief Julian Miranda. “Nothing like this has happened here [before].”

As a reserve officer, Miranda said, Yee worked 20 hours a week.

Miranda said he had received no complaints about Yee’s performance as a reserve officer. Nor were there any indications, he added, of Yee’s alleged militia connections.

According to Los Angeles County business records, Yee has owned three San Dimas businesses--including two apparent outdoor-related companies--since 1978.

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One of Yee’s businesses was an auto repair shop, Glenn’s Porsche Service, on Foothill Boulevard, records show. At that same address, Yee has been listed as the owner and co-owner of a company called the Outdoor Outfitter. He also is the owner of a firm called Mail Order Map Service, records show.

Yee’s alleged accomplice, Durand, works as a manager at Western Bagel in Santa Clarita and is a gun enthusiast, according to a friend and a neighbor who asked not to be named.

The friend said Durand was popular in the neighborhood, and he expressed surprise at news of his arrest.

“Everyone loves him,” the friend said. “People took advantage of Raymond. He was too nice.”

Times correspondent Greg Sandoval and Times librarian Rebecca Andrade contributed to this report.