Militia members to stand trial in Somali plot

Prosecutors: ‘Crusaders’ sought to inspire attacks

WICHITA, Kan. — Months before the 2016 general election, members of a Kansas militia group that prosecutors say came to be known as the “the Crusaders” met in an office to pick the targets of bombings that they hoped would inspire a wave of attacks on Muslims throughout the U.S.

In a business in the southwestern city of Liberal that sold mobile homes, the four men took precautions to avoid getting caught, putting their cellphones in a separate room and locking the door to prevent anyone from walking in on them. Three of them didn’t know that the fourth was wearing a wire as part of a federal investigation that would thwart their alleged plot.

Authorities say that on the day after Election Day, they hoped to detonate four car bombs outside of a mosque and an apartment complex that was home to Somali refugees who had settled in the meatpacking town of Garden City, which is about 60 miles south of Liberal along the Oklahoma border.

Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial of Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen on charges of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights. Stein, who prosecutors say was the militia’s leader, also faces an additional weapons-related charge, and Wright faces a charge of lying to the FBI. They have pleaded not guilty. If convicted of the weapon of mass destruction charge, each could be sentenced to up to life in prison.

Prosecutors have said that a militia member tipped off federal authorities after becoming alarmed by the escalating talk of violence and later agreed to wear a wire as a paid informant.

According to prosecutors, Stein was recorded discussing the type of fuel and fertilizer bomb that Timothy McVeigh used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.