Multiple members of the white supremacist group, The Base, have been charged with killing a ram and posing with its head (above) following a 'ritual sacrifice' that involved them drinking the animal's blood while they were training for a race war in Georgie in 2019
Five members of The Base were charged earlier this month with killing the ram during what authorities have said was a 'ritual sacrifice' at the group's training camp in the small Georgia town of Rome back in 2019.
Patrik Mathews, William Garfield Bilbrough IV, Brian Mark Lemley Jr., Brandon Gregory Ashley and Duncan Christopher Trimmell have been charged with aggravated animal cruelty by a Floyd County grand jury, according to an indictment obtained by the Rome News-Tribune.
Everyone apart from Trimmell also were charged with livestock theft.
Three other members were charged in the animal's killing last year.
Investigators say the group stole the ram from a local property and tried to kill it with a knife during a meeting on the isolated property back on Halloween in 2019.
The men allegedly ended up shooting the ram and cutting off its head before drinking the animal's blood and posing for photos with it.
Prosecutors said the animal was killed in what they described as a 'Norse-pagan ritual'.
The recent charges against alleged members of the white supremacist group have shed further light on The Base, which has faced scrutiny following an undercover state and federal law enforcement investigation.
An undercover FBI agent who infiltrated the group previously said members used the training camp to shoot guns and take drugs as they prepared for a race war.
The agent participated in shooting drills in preparation for what the group believed was an impending collapse of the US and the subsequent race war.
The undercover agent was among the members who posed for photos in tactical gear. The photos later were used in its propaganda material.
Authorities also have said some members allegedly plotted to kill a couple who they believed were anti-fascist activists but were arrested before they could act on it.
They had believed killing the couple would send a message to enemies of The Base, according to authorities.
Court documents related to the investigations include details of how some of the men built an assault rifle using parts, purchased thousands of rounds of ammunition and traded vests that could carry body armor.
Mathews, Lemley and Bilbrough, who were among the five recently charged in regards to the animal killing, were also arrested in Maryland and Delaware on federal felony charges back in January 2020.
Three other men, all from north Georgia and linked by authorities to The Base, already face charges related to the animal's death and other alleged crimes.
Luke Austin Lane, Michael Helterbrand and Jacob Kaderli have been held without bond for more than a year in the Floyd County jail.
A federal judge in December sentenced Bilbrough to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts related to assisting Mathews.
Lemley, a US Army veteran, and Mathews, a former Canadian Armed Forces reservist, pleaded not guilty to charges including transporting a firearm and ammunition with the intent to commit a felony.
The FBI has previously said The Base has proclaimed war against minority communities within the United States and abroad.
Unlike other extremist groups, it's not focused on promulgating propaganda. The group instead aims to bring together highly skilled members to train them for acts of violence.
Organizers of The Base recruit fellow white supremacists online - particularly seeking out veterans because of their military training - using encrypted chat rooms and training members in military-style camps in the woods, according to experts who track extremist groups.
The group is believed to have been founded and run by Rinaldo Nazzaro - a 46-year-old American living somewhere in Russia.
Nazzaro is said to have started the group back in 2018.
Reader Comments
And by the way: Last time I checked, one of the translations of "Base" was still " Al-Quaeda ". Even Leftist Propaganda out let Wackopedia says to.[Link]
Does it mean that ...
Same thing that happened in Miami back around 2008? Except they were 'Black Supremacist' Islamists - who really agreed to show up for the cool shoes.
The Base? Like the CIA's database Al Qaeda? (They really are short on creative skills.)
R.C.
That's textbook entrapment, which is why the FISA court exists, so The People aren't allowed to see the evidence and the defendants literally are not allowed to explain why they did what they did, which is why whistleblowing on the government is a lost cause. And any whistleblower who isn't crucified by the media and the government is actually still working under orders from their higher ups.
The courts, IMO, ceased doing their jobs when they got worried about all of the misrepresentation of the BFM that they were willy nilly letting dangerous people back in the street; they weren't, but the government made sure to tell the BFM every time that a court ruling that a defendant's case was thrown out due to bad / tainted evidence, procedural scams by the prosecutor, (most of which were in drug cases which remain the absolutely most framed up) but such rulings obviously must also apply to all criminal cases so that when some real scumbag (scumbag of the malum per se type) got walked because of prosecutor police abuse, it would get pitched by the BFM as if 'liberal' courts were . . . whatever. you know.
RC
This is fear porn for the dumbest of society.
R.C.
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