Federal authorities arrested two people who plotted a “racially motivated” attack on Baltimore’s power grid, the Department of Justice said Monday (Feb. 6).

FBI agents arrested Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 34, of Catonsville, Md., and Brandon Clint Russell, 27, of Orlando, Fla., Feb. 3 and charged them with conspiracy to destroy an energy facility, which serves the majority Black city.

“Driven by their ideology of racially-motivated hatred, the defendants allegedly schemed to attack local power grid facilities,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen said. “The Justice Department will not tolerate those who threaten critical infrastructure and imperil communities in the name of domestic violent extremism.”

According to the DOJ, from at least June 2022, Russell and Clendaniel began searching for targets and trying to illegally obtain a rifle to carry out the attacks on electrical substations that would have plunged Baltimore into darkness during the middle of winter.

Russell allegedly posted links in encrypted conversations to open-source maps of electrical substations and described how a small number of attacks could cause a “cascading failure,” federal prosecutors said.

Clendaniel discussed her desired rifle for the attack, the DOJ’s statement said. In later conversations, she talked about how hitting multiple substations on the same day “would completely destroy this whole city,” and that a “good four or five shots through the center of them…should make that happen.”

Maryland’s newly-elected Gov. Wes Moore said: “I want to commend the F.B.I. and our state homeland security team for their swift action in preventing a potentially catastrophic attack on several of Maryland’s electrical substations. Our state and local law enforcement authorities are working in partnership with the F.B.I. to assist with any follow-up investigative work they need. This collaborative effort is vital to protecting critical infrastructure across Maryland, and I’m grateful to the men and women protecting our state.”

According to NBC News, Russell was a founder of a neo-Nazi group named the Atomwaffen Division, an organization focused on the collapse of civilization. Its members’ methodology is lone wolf violence.

Federal authorities were already acquainted with Russell, who pleaded guilty in September 2017 to possessing an unregistered destructive device and unlawfully storing explosive materials in his home. A judge sentenced him in January 2018 to five years in federal prison.

Clendaniel was also no stranger to law enforcement. Her long criminal record includes a 2006 robbery conviction, the Associated Press reports. Authorities said she used a butcher knife while demanding money from a convenience store clerk.

If convicted, Russell and Clendaniel each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.