Tooele County man indicted for trying to blow up BLM facility in Arizona

[accadacca]

Yikes!!!



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(KUTV) A Tooele County man, who was involved an armed stand-off in 2014 and friends with LaVoy Finicum, was arrested by the FBI and indicted for using bombs to destroy a building owned by the feds in Arizona, according to court records.

The bombs never went off though because the person making them was an FBI undercover agent.

William Keebler, of Stockton, Utah was eventually arrested in Nephi on Wednesday by FBI agents.

KUTV 2News first broke the story on Wednesday about Keebler's arrest and noted that he has a strong hatred for the federal government and looked to be using social media to recruit and assemble an armed militia.

https://www.facebook.com/bill.keeble...51637584853945

The felony indictment was filed Wednesday in the Central Division of the District of Utah. Keebler is charged with one count of attempted damage to federal property by means of fire or explosive.

Keebler is the commander of a citizen militia group known as the Patriots Defense Force, with headquarters in Stockton, Utah, according to the indictment. Keeber was present during the Bunkerville, Nevada armed stand-off against the Bureau of Land Management in 2014. He posted on Facebook that he was on the Bundy Ranch for 13 days. Cliven Bundy, who was recently arrested in Portland, Oregon for activity related to the stand-off in Nevada, was one of many who were participants in the 2014 stand-off, court records state.

The feds also say Keebler was an associate of LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona, who participated in the federal property takeover at Malheur Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon. Finicum was eventually killed by law enforcement for resisting arrest, the indictment states.



FBI undercover agents gained insight into Keebler's militia group and even spoke face-to-face with Keebler and had cell phone conversations, records state.

Agents learned even more about Keebler's growing plans as they participated in "field training exercises" that were organized by Keebler. In the trainings, PDF members practiced shooting at targets and were given instruction from Keebler about firearms, military, and survival tactics, federal court records state.




Agents found out Keebler has continued to recruit, organize and prepare the PDF for the day when they can take part in an anti-government action with other militia groups similar to the event in Bunkersville, Nevada, the documents state. In May, Keebler spoke with PDF members about "going on the offensive," records state.

Back in February, Keebler discussed gathering information on potential targets with the PDF. After some discussion, Kebbler decided the BLM office near the Gateway Mall in downtown Salt Lake City was a poor target due to high commercial and homeless activity in the general area, he said he would prefer targeting an area that was less visible.


https://www.facebook.com/bill.keeble...07133962637641

In March Keebler determined what the PDF going to focus on. The government had been allowed to harass people, but the repercussion were going to start, Keebler said according to documents.

Because Keebler felt the BLM was overreaching their authority by implementing grazing restrictions on ranchers, or land that belonged to "the people." As a result, Keebler told the PDF they would target BLM facilities in the "middle of nowhere," documents state.

Some of the ways Keebler planned for his militia to target BLM property by sneaking in and severely damaging vehicles or buildings. Keebler asked one of the militia members, who was also a FBI undercover agent with experience building explosive materials. Keebler wanted the agent to build a device that could disable a BLM vehicle or damage a building, records state. Keebler made it clear he did not plan to blow any people up for now, but he did want his group prepared to escalate things and take people out if necessary, according to court records.



The FBI agent tasked with building an explosive showed Keebler a video in April of a 6-inch pipe bomb blowing up abandoned office furniture in the mountains in Southern Utah. Keebler appeared to look impressed and wanted to know if the undercover agent could make more explosive devices, specifically for a BLM target Keebler had in mind in Mount Trumbull, Arizona, federal court records state.

Keebler said he, LaVoy Finicum, and a PDF/Undercover FBI agent took pictures of the Arizona BLM facility. The plan was to have two bombs damage the building, both would be twice the size Keebler had seen in the undercover agent's video, according to records. One bomb would be ignited by a remote control device capable of being detonated by a walkie-talkie, while the second bomb would be ignited by a timed fuse.
The first bomb was to be used near a cabin of the Mount Trumbull BLM facility and the second bomb would be used against law enforcement agents if the PDF were stopped while driving to or from Mount Trumbull, according to court records.




The plan was to drive down to Arizona on June 20 and detonate one of the explosives against a BLM cabin during the early morning of June 21, records state. Then Keebler said they would drive back to Salt Lake City to keep as much distance between them and the damage caused to the BLM facility. Keebler chose Father's Day weekend as a prime time because a militia group in Washington State would be having a gathering that weekend and the PDF thought they could say they could use that group meeting as an alibi if necessary.

With plans in place, the ball began rolling and Keebler left Stockton, Utah on June 20 bound for Mount Trumbull, Arizona to carry out the planned attack. Later that day Keebler arrived at the facility in Arizona with PDF militia members and FBI undercover agents.

During the late evening hours of June 21, a non-explosive device was put against a door of one of the BLM cabins in Mount Trumbull and Keebler used a remote detonation device and pushed the detonator button several times to set off what he believed to be an explosive, according to court records.

Keebler then left the area and returned to Utah, all according to plan, except the part where Keebler was arrested on the morning of June 22 in Nephi by FBI agents.

[Sombeech]

He was part of the PDF group? Expect an update to be installed, providing no new changes.