TAMPA, Florida — New details have been released in the arrest of a neo-Nazi from Florida accused of plotting to attack part of the Maryland power grid.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland said Brandon Russell's plan threatened lives and would have left thousands in the cold and dark.
He and a Maryland woman are charged with conspiring to destroy an energy facility.
10 Tampa Bay obtained a 2017 interrogation video with Russell's former Tampa roommate revealing law enforcement was given red flags and warnings more than five years ago.
"He's a good person but the things they were planning were horrible, they're planning bombings and stuff like that on countless people, planning to kill civilian life," Devon Arthurs told a Tampa police investigator, adding, "Brandon literally is somebody that has the knowledge to build a nuclear bomb."
Arthurs had just confessed to killing his two roommates in Tampa and then told police about the neo-Nazi group they all belonged to called the Atomwaffen Division, along with their other roommate, Brandon Russell, who was the leader.
"They know exactly how to build, how to build bombs that could destroy this entire building," Arthurs told police.
Investigators found a whole garage full of explosive materials inside Russell's Tampa garage, including his national guard uniform in the closet and books and propaganda supporting his extremist views.
"There are some nuclear materials in that garage," Arthurs said. "I'm telling you stuff that the FBI should also be hearing this."
Russell went to prison on bomb-making charges and was released in 2021.
Now, he could face 20 years in prison if convicted of this latest charge for the alleged plot to attack the Maryland power grid.
Some known members of Atomwaffen, the neo-Nazi group Russell was part of, have links to the U.S. military.