Wildlife Officer Helped Break Viper Militia in Arizona
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PHOENIX — The Viper Militia was broken by an undercover wildlife officer who took the “Militiaman’s Oath” and agreed to kill infiltrators.
The Fish and Game Department employee fell in with the group while conducting a wildlife investigation in the Tonto National Forest north of Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reported Thursday.
Twelve Viper Militia members were arrested Monday on charges of conspiracy to make bombs and teach others how to use them.
The group came to the attention of authorities when a hunter complained that a group of camouflaged, armed men conducting maneuvers in the woods had ordered him to stay off a service road.
Federal officials turned to the game worker, who had also run across the group about the same time. They made him an undercover informant and even deputized him as an agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The informant gathered evidence that the group was hoarding weapons and plotting to make bombs.
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