Officials in Hemet, CA, have charged a member of a known skinhead group in connection with several booby trapping incidents targeting local law enforcement that led to a series of raids and 23 arrests.
On April 20, law enforcement officials raided 35 homes in Hemet and the surrounding San Jacinto Valley, arresting 23 people on suspected parole, weapons and narcotics violations.
Yesterday, the police charged one man, Patrick Nugent Jr., with six felonies, including membership in a known skinhead group, Comrades Of Our Racial Struggle Family Skins, and for possessing a zip gun similar to one used in an attempted attack against local law enforcement.
Hemet police and the Gang Task Force had been the targets of a number of booby traps, including the rerouting of a gas line into a police compound, and a fire set to four city-owned trucks.
On February 23, a zip gun rigged to a fence at the Hemet-San Jacinto Valley Gang Task Force office fired off a round and almost hit an officer who was opening the gate. Nugent possessed a similar weapon found during the raids, according to The Press-Enterprise, a local paper in Southern California.
No other charges have yet been brought in connection with the booby traps.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
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