A convicted felon who once planned to create a “hit squad” to kill Black and Jewish people pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Monday to possessing two homemade rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Shane Robert Smith, 24, of Whitehall, who was initially convicted in a 2016 sting of possessing a machine gun, admitted he violated a federal law which prohibits convicted felons from possessing a firearm. Smith was released from prison in April 2018, when he began a three-year term of supervised release. In January 2020, officers with state parole and federal probation made an unannounced visit to Smith’s home and found “items consistent with white supremacy beliefs (militia flags, combat field guides, notes on reloading ammunition),” court papers show. In December 2020, federal probation officers searched Smith’s home and found two rifles, whose barrels were each less than 16 inches in length, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, prosecutors for acting U.S. Attorney Antoinette Bacon said. (…) Smith, who was targeted in a sting, was creating a group called the “Silent Resistance Army,” and hoped to acquire machine guns, explosives and bullets that could pierce body armor. He tried to use maple syrup as currency. “You building your own army?”an undercover asked Smith. “Well, like a hit squad,” Smith responded, according to court papers. Smith told an undercover officer “I love violence.”
via timesunion: White supremacist who planned ‘hit squad’ heading back to federal prison