The US Attorney’s office in Eastern Michigan handed down indictments against nine alleged members of a seditious militia group that was busted in a series of raids over the weekend.
Among those named in the five-count grand jury indictment, which was unsealed today, is Thomas Piatek, 46, of Whiting, Indiana.
The indictment charges Piatek and eight others from Michigan and Ohio belonged to the fringe religious group called Hutaree, which, between August 2008 and the present, conspired to fight law enforcement officials.
Members of the group are charged with seditious conspiracy, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and teaching the use of explosive material.
According to the indictment, Hutaree members view local, state, and federal law enforcement as the “brotherhood”, their enemy, and have been preparing to engage them in armed conflict.
One plan laid out in the indictment had the militia members killing an unidentified law enforcement member, then using improvised explosive devices during said officers funeral procession in order to take out more cops.
The group’s alleged leader, David Brian Stone of Clayton Michigan, reportedly downloaded information for building such devices from the Internet.
His son, Joshua Stone was not captured in the raids in is considered a fugitive.
Authorities said the arrests underscored the dangers of homegrown right-wing extremism of the sort seen in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
