ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Lede
Twelve members of a private Arizona militia unit were arrested Monday on charges of plotting for more than two years to bomb government offices in the Phoenix area, federal officials announced.
Attorney General Janet Reno said the 12 had trained to use explosives to destroy buildings housing the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Secret Service, the Phoenix Police Department and the Arizona National Guard.
The paramilitary group, which called itself the ``Viper Militia,'' engaged in field training exercises in which members made and detonated ammonium nitrate bombs and rockets, according to a seven-count indictment unsealed in Phoenix.
All 12 were arrested Monday by agents who then spent much of the day exercising search warrants. An ATF bomb squad evacuated about six homes near the house of one of the suspects while they removed explosive material in special containers Monday evening, the agency said.
Ammonium nitrate was used in the bomb that destroyed a federal office building in Oklahoma City, but there was no indication of any connection between the two incidents. The indictment said the Arizona conspiracy began at least as early as May 30, 1994, almost a full year before the Oklahoma City bombing.
The indictment described a videotape made that day, by the group, in which a member discussed approaches, security measures, communications equipment, fences and adjacent structures at the various target locations. The tape also provides suggestions for placing explosives so that they cause the buildings to collapse.
For instance, the grand jurors said, the videotape described a Phoenix building that in May 1994 housed the ATF, FBI and other federal offices.
``The tape advises that the placement of `anti-personnel' devices in mailboxes shown near the entrance of the building could harass U.S. Treasury employees,'' the indictment said.
The tape also shows multiple views of the exterior of the building housing the IRS while the narrator discussed the shift change schedule of building security guards and other security measures. Showing the headquarters of the Phoenix Police Department, the tape narrator says it would be difficult to take over but that ``it would be a `major political statement' if it were taken over'' and the records and equipment inside ``would be invaluable.''
Much of the information in the indictment came from an unidentified state police officer who infiltrated the militia as part of the investigation, according to ATF agent Jose T. Wall.
The indictment describes several explosives training exercises, beginning last Nov. 11 when the group detonated several devices, creating a crater in open land 6 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep, and fired an unarmed rifle grenade about 100 feet. Some of the exercises allegedly were conducted in rural Arizona near the Sunrise Mine, two miles south of Highway 60 and 10 miles west of Wickenburg.
``These arrests culminate a six-month investigation and avert a potentially dangerous situation,'' Reno said in a statement. She praised the Treasury's ATF agents who conducted the investigation.
Twelve members of the group were indicted for conspiracy to manufacture and possess unregistered explosive devices, such as fertilizer bombs, and possession of unregistered destructive devices.
Six of them also were charged with conspiracy and violation of a statute that prohibits instruction in using explosives to promote civil disorder.
``This is the first time in Arizona that federal charges of conspiracy to commit civil disorder have been applied to militia groups threatening the public safety and the safety of others who work in and live around federal buildings,'' said U.S. Attorney Janet Napolitano of Phoenix.
Those charged, all from Arizona, were identified as:
* Randy Lynne Nelson, 32, and Dean Carl Pleasant, 27, of Peoria.
* Finis Howard Walker, 41, David Wayne Belliveau, 27, Ellen Adella Belliveau, 27, Charles Franklin Knight, 47, and Scott Jeffery Shero, 30, of Glendale.
* Walter Earl Sanville, 37, of Scottsdale.
* Gary Curtis Bauer, 50, Henry Alfred Overturf, 37, Donna Star Williams, 44, and Christopher Alan Floyd, 21, of Phoenix.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB