** ** Sting targets white supremacists: Agents' Nazi 'gang' duped suspects****
SENTINEL EXCLUSIVE**** ** ** By Henry Pierson Curtis, Orlando Sentinel**** ** ** 7:53 p.m. EST, July 28, 2012**** http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-28/news/os-neo-nazis-bikers-florida-white-power-20120728_1_white-supremacists-aryan-nations-outlaws-motorcycle-club **** ** ** **** ** ** ST. CLOUD - A neo-Nazi motorcycle gang created by an undercover**** law-enforcement unit to investigate white supremacists and racist bikers has **** helped topple two domestic-terrorism groups in Central Florida.**** ** ** The original investigation began in 2007, when an undisclosed agent traded** ** emails with August Kreis III, a leader of the Aryan Nations hate group who** ** wanted to form a Nazi motorcycle club to serve as the militant arm for white **** supremacists across the country, according to records obtained by the**** Orlando Sentinel.**** **** Using a false identity, the agent with the Orange County Sheriff's Office*** * became the Aryan Nations' top Florida administrator responsible for**** recruiting members for what would become the 1st SS Kavallerie Brigade**** Motorcycle Division - operating out of a clubhouse in St. Cloud.**** ** ** Early members included at least two additional undercover FBI agents - who** ** infiltrated the club - and a biker accused of offering $1,000 to anyone**** willing to shoot a black man riding an ATV in rural Osceola County, records* *** show.**** ** ** "The underlying aspect through all of it was that they were obtaining**** explosives and explosives expertise, and they intended to use them to kill** ** people in the United States," Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar**** told the Sentinel last week about what he characterized as the region's most **** complex undercover operation in decades.**** ** ** "We have a duty to stop what they were doing."**** ** ** The two cases - the motorcycle club and the takedown of the American Front** ** white-supremacist group in Osceola in May - have resulted in 20 arrests on** ** charges ranging from unsuccessful bomb and murder plots to drug dealing,**** illegal firearms possession and conducting paramilitary training to prepare* *** for a race war.**** ** ** Hidden mikes, cameras**** ** ** Once one of America's largest white-supremacist groups, the Aryan Nations*** * broke into factions after losing a 2004 civil lawsuit brought by the**** Southern Poverty Law Center that depleted the racist group's finances. In*** * 2008, Kreis came to Central Florida to meet his new followers after Brian*** * Klose became the new club's "Fuhrer."**** ** ** A 6-foot-6 giant known for drinking from a 70-pound beer stein, Klose worked **** as an enforcer for the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, which the U.S. Department of **** Justice describes as one of the country's largest "outlaw motorcycle gangs"* *** with a long, violent history in Florida. A doting son of elderly parents, he **** opened the Kavallerie Brigade's clubhouse within walking distance of their** ** St. Cloud home on Old Canoe Creek Road.**** ** ** The Sentinel obtained hundreds of pages of documents related to the two**** domestic-terrorism cases. The information in this report comes from them and **** from interviews with Lamar, some members of his staff and local**** law-enforcement officers.**** ** ** Once the operation into the Kavallerie Brigade began, the FBI Joint**** Terrorism Task Force installed enough hidden microphones and cameras in the* *** clubhouse to stage a reality-TV show.**** ** ** Unaware of being filmed and recorded, Klose warned members to be wary of the **** post-9-11 Patriot Act, which gave police new surveillance powers, and to**** never admit they belonged to the Kavallerie Brigade.**** ** ** Despite his wariness of police infiltration, Klose's in-house explosives**** experts turned out to be agents whom he asked repeatedly to build bombs and* *** hand grenades for attacks he was planning.**** ** ** Documents in the case show an agent reported to officials that he stalled*** * Klose and others by claiming the explosives were difficult to make or easily **** traceable.**** ** ** But on April 28, 2009, the agent detonated a remote-control bomb to show**** Klose what he could do. The blast so excited Klose, he fired a pistol and*** * told the agent "he had a target for him to use the explosives on and that*** * was the [rival] Warlock motorcycle gang's clubhouse."**** ** ** By then, agents had become so entrenched in the group that three of them**** traveled with Klose to Chicago to meet with heads of the Outlaws' chapters** ** about opening Kavallerie Brigade chapters there, records state. The outcome* *** of the discussions was not disclosed.**** ** ** Combat training**** ** ** In the spring of 2010, the local Joint Terrorism Task Force began looking at **** the American Front, another Nazi-influenced group of white supremacists**** rumored to be conducting combat training in rural Osceola County for a race* *** war.**** ** ** There were no law-enforcement officers inside that organization. Instead,*** * that investigation relied on a former drug dealer working as a confidential* *** informant for the government. In that capacity, the man received offers to** ** join biker gangs and the Confederate Hammerskins, a skinhead group that**** required genetic testing to prove racial purity.**** ** ** Emailing agents late at night, the informant reported on whom he met, the*** * drugs they sold, the guns they carried and violent acts the group was**** planning.**** ** ** ==========================================**** (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this **** message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to* *** these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed **** within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with**** "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. **** The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The**** Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain**** permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials* *** if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,**** teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria* *** for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies** ** as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four** ** criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is**** determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not*** * substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use**** copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you **** must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: **** http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml **** ** ** THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. 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