Alleged member of far-right arrested on gun charge
TheFBIhas arrested a Dundalk manona firearms charge after identifying him as a member of the far-right Boogaloo movement, according to a new criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
Frank William Robertson Perry, 39, was taken into custody Oct. 7 after agents raided his home and found a rifle, ammunition and a tactical vest. At a brief hearing Friday afternoon, he was ordered held pending a detention hearing later this month.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force identified Perry as a member of the “Boogaloo” movement in September, according to the documents, which describe the movement as loosely organized “rally point” for extremists intent on a violent uprising or civil war.
It’s not clear how the FBI was led to Perry, but an agent wrote in court documents that Perry’s Facebook page contains pictures of himself and logos and pictures associated with the Boogaloo movement, and that a task force officer observed a sticker “representative of the Boogaloo movement” on his vehicle.
The Boogaloo movement operates primarily online and, federal authorities have said, is growing in size and influence with the goal of igniting a race war. Earlier this year, an adherent of the group, Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, was charged with shooting two federal agents, one fatally.
Perry is prohibited from owning a firearm due to a second-degree burglary conviction from 2002, the records said. Investigators learned that Perry’s girlfriend had purchased a rifle part from a gun shop in April. They next reviewed her Facebook and Pinterest pages, and said it showed no evidence of having interest in guns or hunting.
Perry’s own Pinterest page “reflects a substantial interest in firearms and militia extremist activities,” the FBI said. It contained “numerous saved or pinned pictures of firearms and ammunition, information on how to manufacture gun powder, and various statements regarding one’s obligation to fight against a tyrannical government.”
“These are all items indicative of a person who possesses a deep knowledge of firearms and the component parts of which they are constructed,” the agent wrote.
The Amazonpurchase history for Perry’s girlfriend showed that in recent months an array of gun accessories had been shipped to the home, including a cleaning mat with a diagram of the parts of an AR-15-style rifle; grease for lubricating firearms; a sling and sling assembly for a rifle; a weaponmounted light for AR-15-style weapons; a device to “boresight” or calibrate a weapons sight; and magazine pouches for AR-15style magazines.
After the raid at the home, Perry’s girlfriend said she had purchased the rifle part at the suggestion of Perry, who said that she needed the weapon for selfdefense, the FBI said. She said that she learned that Perry was obtaining firearm parts and shipping them to the residence in her name, and that he built a rifle with assistance from a neighbor.
She also claimed that she had once seen Perry wearing body armor with the rifle slung around his neck while he washing dishes in the house, according to court documents.
Perry also told the FBI that the weapon was for his girlfriend, but “admitted that he would have used the weapon himself for self-defense if put in a position that it was necessary."
He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the firearms charge. Federal prosecutors said Friday afternoon that they would seek to have him detained pending trial, and his public defender said she wanted the “fastest possible” detention hearing set to contest that order.
Earlier this week, the FBI arrested several members of another extremist group on charges that they plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan. The FBI’s Baltimore field office participated in that case as well, as one of the suspects was from Delaware, which falls under the Baltimore office’s jurisdiction.