"Ferguson, a black man from Cleveland, then 20 years old, aroused FBI suspicion in March 2020 with his internet postings. Ferguson led an online chat room on the Discord platform1 known as the 75th Spartans. In this chatroom, Ferguson, whose moniker was "Grinch75R," described his desire to create a militia group and revolt against tyranny. On March 18, 2020, Ferguson wrote that he wanted to organize the Spartans into "centurions to orchestrate raids for supplies such as weapon and armor." On April 7, 2020, Ferguson asked a member of the chatroom, a 14-year-old with the moniker "SecretAgentRandyBeans," whether he could drive because Ferguson wanted to do a "small claim" with the cops and "leave a calling card with the Spartans name." Ferguson stated he had not found any recruits yet. In response, SecretAgentRandyBeans stated he could "kinda drive."
… Pretty soon two government agents get involved and play a pretty active role, and the group discusses various possible plans to call a police car to a remote location and then ambush the officers, steal their weapons and radios, and then let them go—a way to "get the spark going" for their group."
The two FBI CIs persuaded Ferguson to show up on May 8 at an abandoned house in the Cleveland area to scope out the area. Ferguson brings his AR-15 (at the request of the FBI CI). Upon arrival the CI proposes (and Ferguson agrees) to do a "dry run" and call some cops to see how long it would take them to get there. They place a call for service, the cops arrive, Ferguson and the two FBI CIs all flee, the cops catch them and arrest all three (pretending to arrest the two CIs as well).
"Ferguson, a black man from Cleveland, then 20 years old, aroused FBI suspicion in March 2020 with his internet postings. Ferguson led an online chat room on the Discord platform1 known as the 75th Spartans. In this chatroom, Ferguson, whose moniker was "Grinch75R," described his desire to create a militia group and revolt against tyranny. On March 18, 2020, Ferguson wrote that he wanted to organize the Spartans into "centurions to orchestrate raids for supplies such as weapon and armor." On April 7, 2020, Ferguson asked a member of the chatroom, a 14-year-old with the moniker "SecretAgentRandyBeans," whether he could drive because Ferguson wanted to do a "small claim" with the cops and "leave a calling card with the Spartans name." Ferguson stated he had not found any recruits yet. In response, SecretAgentRandyBeans stated he could "kinda drive."
… Pretty soon two government agents get involved and play a pretty active role, and the group discusses various possible plans to call a police car to a remote location and then ambush the officers, steal their weapons and radios, and then let them go—a way to "get the spark going" for their group."