Domestic terrorismTwo Boogaloo Followers Charged with Trying to Sell Weapons to, Become Mercenaries for Hamas
Federal prosecutors charged two self-proclaimed “Boogaloo Boys” with trying to sell weapons to someone they believed was a member of the Palestinian Islamist terrorist group Hamas for the purpose of attacking Israeli and U.S. soldiers. Prosecutors said that the two also considered becoming “mercenaries” for Hamas in order to raise funds for and boost the reputation of the Boogaloo movement.
Federal prosecutors charged two self-proclaimed “Boogaloo Boys” with trying to sell weapons to someone they believed was a member of the Palestinian Islamist terrorist group Hamas. Prosecutors said that the two men — Michael Robert Solomon, 30, of North Carolina, and Benjamin Ryan Teeter, 22, of Minnesota – also considered becoming “mercenaries” for Hamas in order to raise funds for and boost the reputation of the Boogaloo movement.
The Boogaloo movement is a loose grouping of far-right, anti-government extremists, many of whom show up in anti-government demonstrations wearing Hawaiian shirts and carrying AR-15 rifles. A small sub-group, Boogaloo Bois, is especially violent.
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For more on the Boogaloo movement see:
— “‘Boogaloo’ Follower Charged with Killing Police Officer during BLM Protest,” HSNW, 17 June 2020
— “DHS Warns Boogaloo Bois May Be Targeting Washington, D.C.,” HSNW, 23 June 2020
— Emma Grey Ellis, “The Meme-Fueled Rise of a Dangerous, Far-Right Militia.” Wired, 18 June 2020
— Meghann Myers, “Far-Right Groups Like the ‘Boogaloo’ and ‘O9A’ Continue to Attract Troops and Veterans,” Military Times, 23 June 2020
— Alex Goldenberg, Joel Finkelstein, and John Farmer Jr., “How the Boogaloo Movement Is Turning Memes into Violent Action,” Brookings Institution, 29 June 2020
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One of the Boogaloo Bois followers is now facing trial in California for killing two police officers. Several members of the Boogaloo movement were arrested in the past two months, facing charges of plotting terrorist attacks in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado.
DHS and the FBI regard Boogaloo movement as domestic terrorists.
Solomon and Teeter were arrested Thursday. Prosecutors say that they sought out Hamas not because they shared Hamas’s Islamist ideology, but because they thought that the Palestinian terrorist group’s anti-U.S. positions were in line with Boogaloo’s own vehement anti-U.S. government convictions.
