Former Whatcom man among 4 charged with conspiracy to threaten journalists, activists
Four racially motivated violent extremists, including one with Whatcom County ties, were arrested and charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle with conspiracy to threaten and intimidate journalists and activists.
The U.S. Department of Justice, in a press release Feb. 26, announced the arrests and searches by the FBI and local law enforcement coordinated by the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney’s offices in Seattle, Tampa, Houston and Phoenix.
The defendants charged in the conspiracy were: Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas; Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, of Redmond; Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, of Spring Hill, Florida; and Johnny Roman Garza, 20, or Queen Creek, Arizona.
“These defendants from across the country allegedly conspired on the internet to intimidate journalists and activists with whom they disagreed,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in the release. “This is not how America works. The Department of Justice will not tolerate this type of behavior.”
Cole lived in Blaine in February 2018, when ProPublica published a story about the Atomwaffen Division celebrating a member for allegedly killing a gay Jewish college student. Cole served as Atomwaffen’s Washington chapter leader and helped organize a desert training session in Nevada, which the group called the “Death Valley Hate Camp.”
ProPublica also reported that Cole lived in Bellingham in 2015 and that police responded to a report that he had Nazi memorabilia at his home, and that police in Anacortes received reports that he allegedly harassed a Jewish grocer store owner by waving a Nazi flag in front of the store.
A former Atomwaffen member also reportedly told ProPublica that Cole held substantial influence over the organization’s propaganda, recruitment and organization.
A Oct. 19 Daily Beast story said Cole was deported and banned for life from Canada and was stripped of his firearms by a “red-flag law” in 2019. The story said Cole was interrogated by U.S. border agents regarding his extremist views.
Wednesday’s criminal complaint said the Cole and the other three defendants conspired through an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate, focusing primarily on Jewish and journalists of color, the release said.
Cole and Shea made posters that included Nazi symbols, masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails and threatening language, according to the release. Those posters were delivered to Atomwaffen members electronically, and they printed and delivered the posters to those the group was targeting.
“These defendants sought to spread fear and terror with threats delivered to the doorstep of those who are critical of their activities,” U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran for the Western District of Washington said in the release. “As Attorney General William Barr has made clear, rooting out anti-Semitic hate and threats of violence and vigorously prosecuting those responsible are top priorities for the Department of Justice.”
In the Seattle area, the posters were mailed to a TV journalist who reported on Atomwaffen and two individuals associated with the Anti-Defamation League.
“The FBI recognizes all citizen’s First Amendment-protected rights. However, the subjects arrested today crossed the line from protected ideas and speech to action in order to intimidate and coerce individuals who they perceived as a threat to their ideology of hate,” Raymond Duda, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Seattle, said in the release.
