FBI arrests ‘white extremists’ ahead of pro-gun rally

The FBI arrested three alleged members of the white extremist group “The Base” Thursday, saying they accumulated ammunition and built a functioning automatic weapon, days before a Virginia rally against gun controls.

Federal prosecutors in Greenbelt, Maryland said that US citizens Brian Lemley, 33, and William Bilbrough, 19, and Canadian Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27, were all charged with felony firearms violations.

Lemley and Bilbrough were also charged in relation to transporting and harboring an illegal alien.

Prosecutors said the three were members of The Base, described as an international network of white nationalists who have paramilitary training camps and who discuss online bomb-making and “committing acts of violence against minority communities.”

The arrest came a day after the governor of the neighboring state of Virginia declared a “state of emergency” ahead of a gun rights rally in the capital of Richmond, citing “credible threats” of violence from white nationalist and militia groups.