FBI arrests suspected white supremacists in Virginia for allegedly plotting a 'race war'

Two suspects in an alleged plot to blow up houses of worship.

(Image credit: Twitter.com/BuzzFeedNews)

last updated 11 November 2015

Two men in Virginia were arrested Sunday for allegedly planning to bomb synagogues and black churches and shoot their worshippers in order to start a race war, the FBI announced Tuesday.

A law enforcement official told CNN that Robert Curtis Doyle and Ronald Beasley Chaney III are suspected white supremacists who plotted to rob the owner of a gun store and a jeweler in order to stockpile money and weapons, which they would use to attack synagogues and churches, sparking a "race war." Another man, Charles Daniel Halderman, was also arrested, accused of planning to help Doyle and Chaney rob and murder a jewelry dealer, CNN reports.

Court documents say that in September, the FBI learned that Doyle was going to host a meeting at his house to "discuss acting out in furtherance of their extremist beliefs by shooting or bombing the occupants of black churches and Jewish synagogues." In October, Doyle and Chaney allegedly met with an undercover FBI agent, who posed as an illegal arms dealer selling weapons and explosives. On Sunday, Chaney was arrested by the FBI after allegedly exchanging money for two firearms, explosives, and silencers; Doyle was arrested later in the day. Court documents show that Chaney, Doyle, and Halderman have all previously been convicted of felonies.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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