(CNN) — Nine suspected members of a militia group were charged Monday with seditious conspiracy and related charges, federal prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury in Detroit, Michigan, indicted six Michigan residents, two Ohioans and an Indianan on the conspiracy charges, plus attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade and Andrew Arena, FBI special agent in charge, announced.
The five-count indictment unsealed Monday charges that since August 2008, the defendants, acting as a Lenawee County, Michigan, militia group called the Hutaree, conspired to oppose by force the authority of the U.S. government.
The suspects were identified as David Brian Stone, 45; his wife, Tina Stone, 44; his son, Joshua Matthew Stone, 21, of Clayton, Michigan; and another son, David Brian Stone Jr., 19, of Adrian, Michigan; Joshua Clough, 28, of Blissfield, Michigan; Michael Meeks, 40, of Manchester, Michigan; Thomas Piatek, 46, of Whiting, Indiana; Kristopher Sickles, 27, of Sandusky, Ohio; and Jacob Ward, 33, of Huron, Ohio.
Eight of the nine defendants are in custody, and seven of them will make their initial appearance Monday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald A. Scheer, prosecutors said. Joshua Stone is a fugitive, according to prosecutors.
The Hutaree group proclaims on a Web site it is “preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive.”
The FBI wouldn’t disclose details of this weekend’s raids in three states, but a law enforcement source said the arrests were unrelated to any terrorist plot. The source would not confirm Hutaree members were among those arrested but said suspects were not planning attacks against government targets and the raids were unrelated to recent threats against members of Congress.
The case is being handled out of Detroit, said Scott Wilson, an FBI spokesman in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mike Lackomar, a county leader for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, who cited the FBI for his information, said several Hutaree members were arrested at a wake for a group member.
He said Hutaree trained with his organization “on a couple of occasions in years past,” but his group stopped about a year ago after Hutaree had an “issue” with federal firearms regulators. He did not elaborate.
Lackomar called the Hutaree a “religious militant group” with about a dozen members, who “scattered” as news of the raids spread over the weekend. He said his group is aimed at “aiding the community in times of emergency” and had nothing to do with the raids.
