Federal agents: Two Puyallup men arrested and charged for Christmas substation attacks
Two Puyallup men are facing criminal charges in federal court related to Christmas Day attacks on power substations in Pierce County.
Matthew Greenwood, 32, and Jeremy Crahan, 40, were arrested Saturday, following a fast-moving investigation involving the FBI and local law enforcement agencies. Federal prosecutors will ask that both men remain detained at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac pending future hearings.
The men are charged with conspiracy to damage energy facilities and possession of an unregistered firearm, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.
“I commend the work by the FBI to quickly identify these suspects and disrupt any future attacks on the east Pierce County power grid,” Brown said in a news release. “We have seen attacks such as these increase in Western Washington and throughout the country and must treat each incident seriously. The outages on Christmas left thousands in the dark and cold and put some who need power for medical devices at extreme risk.”
Richard A. Collodi, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office, said the two men arrested are believed to be responsible for all four attacks.
According to the criminal complaint filed with the court late Saturday and unsealed Tuesday, the two men were identified as possible suspects through the analysis of cell phone records. At one of the substations, Tacoma Power captured images of one suspect and the image of a pickup that appeared to be connected with the attack. A similar truck was connected to the defendants. When law enforcement served a search warrant on the home of the suspects, they recovered distinctive clothing pictured in the surveillance photos. Agents also seized two short-barreled firearms that had not been registered as required by law. One of the firearms was equipped with a make-shift silencer.
According to charging papers, Greenwood told law enforcement officers that he and Crahan planned the power disruptions to aid a burglary. After the attacks on substations in Graham and South Hill, they broke into a local business affected by the power outage and robbed the cash register.
The four substations that were targeted were the Graham and Elk Plain substations operated by Tacoma Power and the Kapowsin and Hemlock substations operated by Puget Sound Energy. The damage to the Tacoma Power substations is estimated to be at least $3 million.
Repairing the damage to the transformers is also time-consuming. Charging papers noted that the damaged transformers have to be replaced, which can take up to 36 months.
Conspiracy to attack energy facilities is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Possession of an unregistered firearm is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The FBI is investigating the case with assistance from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), Tacoma Police Department, the Washington State Department of Corrections and the Federal Protective Service.