The FBI has arrested two alleged members of the far-right anti-government group the Boogaloo Boys, with authorities increasingly concerned about the potential for violence in the lead-up to next week's midterm elections.
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Timothy Teagan, 24, of Michigan, is charged with being a drug user while possessing firearms and lying about drug use while buying a firearm. Ohio man Aaron McKillips, 29, is accused of illegal possession of a machine gun and interstate communication of threats.
The arrests are notable because they come just days before the November 8 elections, which has been the subject of increasingly alarming political rhetoric. Threats to lawmakers are at an all-time high and election workers have increasingly been targeted by threats and harassment since the 2020 election.
Teagan appeared in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday while wearing a Hawaiian-style shirt, which is a uniform of sorts for adherents to the so-called Boogaloo movement, which espouses that a second US civil war is coming.
Police arrested him in a Detroit suburb on October 25 and charged him with assaulting his father. Days later FBI agents found packages of marijuana in his room at his father's house.
Court papers say Teagan had claimed in July on a federal form to buy a handgun that he didn't use drugs.
Agents also allegedly found body armour, boogaloo items and gas masks in Teagan's room.
The FBI alleges McKillips made multiple online threats, including one to kill a police officer and another to kill anyone he determined to be a federal informant.
He is also accused of providing other Boogaloo members equipment to convert rifles into machine guns.
McKillips frequently advocated violence against police, federal agents and government buildings, stores such as Walmart, and he even threatened to blow up Facebook's headquarters, the criminal complaint says.
Some Boogaloo promoters insist they aren't genuinely advocating for violence. But the movement has been linked to a string of domestic terrorism plots.
Teagan was kept in custody pending a Friday bail hearing. McKillips' lawyer asked for him to be released pending a November 9 hearing in Toledo, Ohio.
Australian Associated Press
