Homeland Security News

An apparent online leak of materials from influential neo-Nazi website Iron March, which has linked to several murders and acts of extremist terrorism, has the potential to identify hundreds of extremists around the world.

The material, posted anonymously to an online archiving site on Wednesday, US time, by a user identified only as “antifa-data”. It apparently comprises the contents of the now defunct Iron March website’s underlying database and makes it possible to match usernames with email addresses, IP addresses, forum posts and direct messages.

Material uncovered in the leak so far suggests some users on the platform registered with existing personal email addresses, including addresses associated with several US universities. Posts and direct messages suggest that some members were on active military service at the time they posted, according to the open source journalism website Bellingcat.

Read more: The Guardian (UK)

A man arrested on suspicion of plotting to bomb a historic southern Colorado synagogue is set to be back in court.

Richard Holzer is scheduled to appear in federal court in Denver Friday for a hearing to review the evidence against him and determine whether he should be released from jail.

The 27-year-old was arrested Nov. 1 after the FBI said he accepted what turned out to be phony explosives from undercover agents he had been talking to about the plan to bomb Temple Emanuel in Pueblo.

Read more: KDVR

The bodies of a man, woman and dog were found in a Simi Valley home Thursday night after police responded to a welfare check and found a bomb threat written on a wall of the residence.

Several homes were evacuated and the public was urged to stay away from a house near the 500 block of Fairfield Road as police and fire department personnel responded to a call at 6:45 p.m., Cmdr. Steve Shorts, Simi Valley Police Department public information officer, said.

Police say they found a bloody scene, including a woman’s body on the ground floor of the home and a man’s body with confirmed gunshot wounds. A dog was also found shot to death.

Read more: NBC Los Angeles

U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office announced that Hanson Richard Larkin, 26, of DeLand, Florida, pled guilty yesterday to a felony Information charging him with knowingly and intentionally transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(c).  Larkin, who has been in custody since his arrest, is scheduled for sentencing on January 8, 2020, at 2:00 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez, where he faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison.

According to the facts admitted at the change of plea, Larkin met an individual who resided in Miami-Dade County online around 2017, and over time, they became friends, communicating via text, phone, and various social media outlets. This friendship did not include any in-person interactions. On a number of occasions during the two years leading up to August 25, 2019, Larkin told this individual about his hatred of Jews.

Read more: DOJ 

A Southwick man pleaded guilty today to sending two packages, containing white powder, to federal agencies in Springfield.

Kevin A. Johnson, 47, pleaded guilty to two counts of conveying false information and hoaxes. U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni scheduled sentencing for Feb. 6, 2020. Johnson was charged by criminal complaint and arrested on Nov. 30, 2018.

Between July and November 2018, FBI’s Springfield Office and the Springfield Social Security Administration Office (SSA Springfield), collectively received three packages containing either threatening communications and/or suspicious substances. The Springfield Branch Office of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts received a letter from an individual claiming responsibility for sending the packages. All of the packages contained a piece of white-lined paper with a hand-drawn logo that appeared to combine the “anarchist A” symbol (the capital letter “A” surrounded by the letter “O”)  and the symbol for ISIS, a foreign terrorist organization. Two of the packages contained suspicious white powder.

Read more: Department of Justice