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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wildlife Officer Infiltrated Militia

Associated Press

The Viper Militia was broken by an undercover wildlife officer who took the “Militiaman’s Oath,” agreed to kill infiltrators and discussed impending race riots.

The Game and Fish 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.

Now that 12 members of the group have been indicted, the department is concerned for the worker’s safety.

“What we’re worried about now is protecting this person,” said an unidentified game official. “The federal people have protection - we don’t.”

Viper Militia members were arrested Monday on charges of conspiracy to make bombs, including a fertilizer bomb of the same type believed to have been used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

The investigation turned up about 600 pounds of the fertilizer ammonium nitrate and 70 automatic weapons or machine guns.

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 and fish worker, who had run across the group separately at about the same time. They made him an undercover informant - and even deputized him as an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The informant - who resembles a biker with a light beard and tattoos - told the Viper Militia he was a private eye.

In taking the oath, he agreed “to kill anyone attempting to infiltrate the militia and seek retribution if any member was arrested.”

Within months, the worker was holding militia meetings in the ATF apartment and duping militia members into talking freely about their activities. He gathered evidence that the group was hoarding weapons and plotting to make bombs. He also gave the ATF a videotape describing how to capture and blow up buildings, the affidavit said.

The officer experienced a close call when first joining, according to the ATF affidavit. Finis Walker, one of those accused in the plot, said the group had checked a record of his telephone calls and found several to be curious.

Walker asked if he and another militia member, Randy Lynne Nelson, could visit the officer’s apartment. Whatever they saw there must have been persuasive - after arriving, Nelson told the officer he no longer had doubts about the infiltrator, the ATF said.