NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A U.S. Army private sent information to an "occult-based neo-Nazi and white supremacist group" as part of a planned "murderous ambush" targeting his fellow soldiers, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday.
Ethan Melzer, 22, of Kentucky, was charged with "terrorism offenses" on Monday for allegedly planning a "deadly ambush on his fellow soldiers in the service of a diabolical cocktail of ideologies laced with hate and violence," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in a statement.
Melzer was arrested for his alleged connection to the plot on June 10, according to the Department of Justice.
He faces charges including conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, conspiring to murder U.S. military service members and attempting to provide and providing material support to terrorists, the department said.
Prosecutors said Melzer, who joined the U.S. Army in 2018, became a member of an extremist group called "Order of the Nine Angles," or O9A, not long after.
Members of the group "have espoused violent, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic and Satanic beliefs, and have expressed admiration for both Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler, and Islamic jihadists, such as Osama Bin Ladin," according to prosecutors.
Melzer went abroad with his unit around October 2019, and learned his unit would be part of another foreign deployment in April 2020, prosecutors said.
Not long after, Melzer started plotting to kill his members of his unit, sending messages to O9A members and affiliates containing "sensitive information to his unit's anticipated deployment, such as locations, movements, and security, for purposes of facilitating an attack on (his) unit," the Justice Department said.
"Melzer and his co-conspirators planned what they referred to as a 'jihadi attack' during the deployment, with the objective of causing a 'mass casualty' event victimizing his fellow service members," the department said.
The Army private wasn't concerned about dying in the attack, telling his co-conspirators he "would've died successfully… 'cause another 10 year war in the Middle East would definitely leave a mark," according to prosecutors.
Melzer faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for the alleged plot, the department said.
His attorney information wasn't immediately available Monday.
