A Marine who was thrown out of the military after it was learned that he posted messages to a neo-Nazi online message board has been indic...
A Marine who was thrown out of the military after it was learned that he posted messages to a neo-Nazi online message board has been indicted along with another former service member and an alleged co-conspirator for manufacturing illegal guns, the federal government said.
Liam Montgomery Collins, 21, was arrested on October 20 on charges of 'conspiracy to manufacture, possess, and distribute various weapons, ammunition, and suppressors,' the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
Another ex-Marine Jordan Duncan, 25, and Paul James Kryscuk, 35, both of Boise, were also named in the indictment.
The alleged crimes took place in North Carolina.
Duncan and Kryscuk waved hearings in the case, clearing the way for their extradition from Idaho.
The three men are alleged to have participated in a money-making conspiracy to build hard-to-trace firearms and distribute them in North Carolina.
Liam Montgomery Collins, 21, a former Marine infantry rifleman who was kicked out of the Corps after it was learned he made anonymous posts to a neo-Nazi message board, was named in a federal indictment along with two others for manufacturing illegal guns
Authorities said Collins is from Johnston, Rhode Island.
Collins joined the Marine Corps in August 2017 as an infantry rifleman. He served with the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.
In November of last year, the Marines investigated Collins after media reports identified him as one of several former and active-duty service members who anonymously posted messages to the now-defunct Iron March neo-Nazi message board.
He was removed from the service last month, Task & Purpose reported.
'Collins' premature discharge is indicative of the fact that the character of his service was incongruent with Marine Corps' expectations and standards,' said Captain Joe Butterfield, a Marine spokesman.
'Due to the associated administrative processes, further details are not releasable.'
According to Newsweek, Collins' posts to Iron March referred to the Marine Corps as the US military's 'whitest branch.'
He also said the US Army base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was 'infested with N*****s.'
Collins is also said to have bragged about 'creating a Paramilitary' after leaving the Corps.
Duncan and Collins were previously assigned to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Court documents say the conspiracy involved Collins and Kryscuk manufacturing and selling hard-to-obtain firearms and firearm parts so purchasers of the weapons would be unknown to government authorities.
Collins; another ex-Marine, Jordan Duncan, 25; and Paul James Kryscuk, 35, both of Boise, were also named in the indictment. Both Collins and Duncan were based in Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina
US District Court Judge Ronald E. Bush in Boise said he did not have a timeline for the transfers by the US Marshals Service.
The US Justice Department as well as court documents say Kryscuk received money from Collins for a hort-barreled rifle and a 9mm pistol with a suppressor, which is placed on the end of a gun barrel to reduce noise when the weapon is fired.
The devices are highly regulated in the US. Authorities say Kryscuk bought supplies to make suppressors.
Authorities also say Kryscuk, using an alias, mailed weapons from Idaho to Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Documents also say Kryscuk shipped the short-barreled rifle to Collins. Court documents say the rifle went to Pennsylvania.
Collins and Kryscuk are charged with conspiracy to manufacture unregistered weapons and ship them across state lines without a license.
They each could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Authorities say Duncan was aware of the conspiracy and participated.
He's charged with conspiracy to manufacture firearms and ship them across state lines. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted.
Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, tweeted on Friday that she was informed by the FBI that her name was on a list obtained during an investigation connected to the arrest of one of the Boise suspects.
'The FBI visited my house today,' she tweeted on Friday.
Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, tweeted on Friday that she was informed by the FBI that her name was on a list obtained during an investigation connected to the arrest of one of the Boise suspects
'They arrested a man in Idaho on weapons charges who they believe was affiliated with white supremacist groups.
'They found my name on a list in his home, alongside others.'
Just before Newsweek reported Collins' links to the message board, an anonymous hacker infiltrated the site and published members' sensitive information online, revealing emails, IP addresses, user names and private messages of at least 1,000 individuals.
The private messages revealed that many of the site's members were ex and active US military personal from all branches and students who attended colleges at two locations.
Iron March, which was decommissioned in 2017, was an online site that allowed people from all over the world to connect in a forum-like setting.
Its members have been linked to murders and terror attacks across Western countries.
The unknown hacker, who went by the name 'antifa-data', posted the data onto the Internet Archive, according to Bellingcat.
One user, who appears to be in the military, explains how combat units allow soldiers to make 'non-PC misogynistic and/or racist jokes', 'They're one of the last places in our system of government where it is still acceptable to publicly be sexist, racists, and discriminatory as you want (so long as a non-combat officer doesn't hear you).'
'In my unit (infantry) I've met quite a few rightists – some openly NS, lots of neo-Nazis, others just nationalists, others red-pilled conservatives, others blue-pilled militiamen, even a couple of Mormon extremists.'
Last week, the Marine Corps launched an investigation after Lance Cpl. Joseph Mercurio (pictured), a deployed machine-gunner, posted neo-Nazi propaganda on his social media accounts and told a Jewish journalist her religion was 'that of Satan'
Mercurio, whose online username included '88' which is used among neo-Nazis as shorthand for 'HH' or 'Heil Hitler', commented on Talia Lavin's Instagram profile last week writing: 'The Jewish religion is that of satan'
Another user, as reported by Ars Technica, claims to be in the Navy, shared, 'Be careful if you get deployed with those [deleted] sand [deleted] and jews.'
'They are all a bunch of slippery pieces of [deleted] that wash their faces in rain puddles in dirt on the ground.
'We are too good to be interacting with those people, maybe trump will at least relax the ROE's [rules of engagement] so those pieces of [deleted] can be blasted back to allah, jews and all.'
The site was launched in 2011 by Alexander Mukhitdinov, who is believed to be an Uzbekistani who emigrated to Russia.
Mukhitdinov had a fascist vision that gained popularity after the election of Donald Trump, the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, said, citing a review of more than 150,000 public Iron March posts it scraped from September 2011 to September 2017.
Last week, the Marine Corps launched an investigation after a deployed machine-gunner posted neo-Nazi propaganda on his social media accounts and told a Jewish journalist her religion was 'that of Satan'.
On September 11 of this year, the Marine Corps removed an infantryman, Thomas Cade Martin (pictured), for sharing white supremacist material online
Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Mercurio, an infantryman with 2nd Battalion in the 4th Marine Regiment, appeared to show neo-Nazi sympathies in both the bio, username and comments posted from his Instagram account.
Mercurio, whose online username included '88' which is used among neo-Nazis as shorthand for 'HH' or 'Heil Hitler', commented on Talia Lavin's Instagram profile last week writing: 'The Jewish religion is that of satan'.
His bio also contained a quote from white nationalist leader Richard Bertrand Spencer and from a song by neo-Nazi punk rock band Skrewdriver.
On September 11 of this year, the Marine Corps removed an infantryman for sharing white supremacist material online.
Thomas Cade Martin served as an anti-tank missile gunner with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment at Camp Pendleton, California.
In June, he was disciplined and demoted in rank from lance corporal to private first class.
Three months later, he was kicked out of the Corps entirely, according to Task & Purpose.
More than two dozen Marine Corps enlistees have been suspected of links to extremist organization in recent years.
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