Alaska militia member, Coleman L. Barney, sentenced to concurrent prison terms for explosives and weapons convictions
A North Pole militia member was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage to five years in prison for conspiracy to possess grenades and silencers and to five years in prison for possession of an unregistered destructive device, with the two sentences to run concurrently, according to an FBI press release.
Photo/Nodar Kherkheulidze via wikimedia commons
U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Bryan presided over the trial in this case and also imposed the two five-year concurrent prison terms on Coleman Barney.
In June, Barney and fellow militia members Schaffer Cox and Lonnie G. Vernon were convicted of conspiracy to possess unregistered silencers and destructive devices, as well as possession of unregistered destructive devices.
The charge of conspiracy to murder federal officials was dismissed.
U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler said, “The actions of Mr. Barney and his co-conspirators presented a very real and dangerous threat to our community.”
Mary Rook, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Alaska added, “This investigation and prosecution found its genesis in the voice of concerned citizens that a group of people, operating under the auspices of a sovereign militia, were planning to murder state and federal officials. As a result of the investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Alaska State Troopers, Coleman Barney and his co-conspirators were arrested before they could carry out their murderous plans.”
