SEATTLE – A Queen Creek man, Johnny Roman Garza, was arrested and charged on Wednesday with a conspiracy to threaten and intimidate journalists and activists. Garza is accused of conspiring with Cameron Brandon Shea, of Redmond, Washington, Kaleb Cole, of Montgomery, Texas, and Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, of Spring Hill, Florida, on the internet to intimidate journalists and activists with whom they disagreed.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the men conspired via an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate. The group focused primarily on those who are Jewish or journalists of color. Defendants Cole and Shea created the posters, which included Nazi symbols, masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails, and threatening language. The posters were delivered to Atomwaffen members electronically and the co-conspirators printed and delivered or mailed the posters to journalists or activists the group was targeting.
In the Seattle area, the posters were mailed to a TV journalist who had reported on Atomwaffen and to two individuals associated with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In Tampa, the group targeted a journalist,but delivered the poster to the wrong address.
In Phoenix, the poster was delivered to magazine journalist Mala Blomquist, Editor in Chief of Arizona Jewish Life Magazine.
Assistant Director for Counterterrorism Jill Sanborn said the “nationwide arrests are the result of the robust partnerships among the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Tampa, Seattle, Houston, and Phoenix and we appreciate their collective efforts.”