The US Justice Department said the FBI arrested a 24-year-old Tennessee man who has been charged with allegedly planning to use a weapon of mass destruction in a neo-Nazi-inspired action to destroy an energy facility near Nashville. Skyler Philippi allegedly prepared to attack Nashville’s power grid with a drone armed with explosives after performing extensive research into how such an episode could serve to “shock the system,” as he reportedly forwarded to one FBI confidential source who became conscious of his plotting, prosecutors stated.
The FBI first started investigating Philippi in June after a confidential source who was in communication with him reported to the FBI his alleged wish to commit a mass shooting at a YMCA near Columbia, Tennessee, according to the complaint. Philippi allegedly frequently espoused his commitment to white supremacist and accelerationist principles which promote the notion that a destabilizing terrorist attack on something like the nation’s energy sectors could benefit to incite turmoil that leads to civil war, according to prosecutors.
“I want to hit Nashville, like one hundred per cent, I want to get Nashville,”
Philippi allegedly expressed in one meeting documented by the undercover agents, according to the complaint.
“I also know Louisville pretty God damn well, since I lived there. I spent about five months scouting out every single place [power station] and even coming up with a game plan to hit it as fast as I could. I had whole maps made, printed out on paper, to do that.”
In September, Philippi and undercover FBI detectives went to an electrical substation he had explored previously and, while in transit, Philippi allegedly called what he believed would be the equivalent of C-4 explosives from the informers, according to the complaint. During the recon mission, the undercover agents documented Philippi stating,
“Holy s—. This will go up like a f—–‘ Fourth of July firework,”
according to the complaint.
Philippi allegedly talked with the undercover agents to test-fly the drone and perform the attack, according to the complaint. The complaint includes a picture that prosecutors said shows Philippi performing the test flight of the drone. The agents provided Philippi with pipe bombs allegedly requested by the defendant that contained an inactive substance so they would not detonate, according to the complaint. Another image included in the complaint indicates a masked person prosecutors expressed is Philippi, along with two FBI undercover agents, showing off the pipe bombs and an explosive machine.
