Federal agents, who executed a search warrant in Lacey, Wash., found 35 guns, including an MG42 machine gun and short barrel rifles, grenade launchers, explosives, body armor and ballistic helmets “surrounded by Nazi paraphernalia,” Derek Sanders, the sheriff of Thurston County, Wash., stated on Tuesday.
Sanders wrote that the U.S. Army’s criminal investigation division contacted the sheriff’s office for help executing the warrant, which he stated was “a result of a violent robbery and theft of military weaponry-armor” and which involved suspects who “were actively involved in Nazi white nationalist efforts.”
An FBI SWAT team found the weapons, including “multiple rifles” that “were staged at windows throughout the residence,” per the sheriff.
“Two suspects were apprehended and booked into Thurston County Jail on firearm-related offenses, with additional federal charges likely to be filed at the completion of the federal investigation,” Sanders stated. He added that the superior court set bail at $500,000 for each of the defendants, “despite requests to set bail at only $5,000.”
The U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle said that the warrant was related to a federal probe of an “assault Sunday at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, just north of Olympia,” the Associated Press reported. The AP added that the MG42 machine gun is “a type typically supported with a bipod and which was used by German troops during World War II.”
