GREENBELT, Md. — A former Canadian Forces reservist and accused neo-Nazi is scheduled to appear in court today on weapons charges linked to his role in an alleged plot to touch off a race war in the United States.
Patrik Mathews, 27, has been in custody in the U.S. since he and two of his American cohorts were arrested a month ago by the FBI.
Mathews, a former combat engineer, vanished from Beausejour, Man., last year following media reports alleging he was a recruiter for The Base, a white-supremacist group with growing notoriety in the U.S. and around the world.
He faces two weapons charges, each of which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, three years of probation and a $250,000 fine.
Prosecutors allege in documents filed in court that Mathews videotaped himself advocating for killing people, poisoning water supplies and derailing trains to incite a civil war in the name of creating a white “ethno-state.”
They have also alleged that Mathews and one of his alleged co-conspirators, 33-year-old Brian Lemley Jr., had been planning to violently disrupt a massive gun-rights rally last month in Richmond, Va.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2020.
The Canadian Press
