Man ‘dedicated to white supremacist ideology’ arrested in alleged plot to attack Nashville energy facility with drone

(CNN) — A Tennessee man “dedicated to white supremacist ideology” faces federal charges in an alleged plot to blow up a Nashville energy facility, an attack that if successful could have left thousands without power three days before the US presidential election, the US Justice Department said Monday.

Skyler Philippi, 24, was arrested Saturday when he “believed he was moments away” from launching a drone armed with explosives at an electric substation in Nashville, according to an agency news release. He’s charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted destruction of an energy facility.

CNN has reached out to an attorney for Philippi, who appeared in court Monday and is due back November 13. At the government’s request, a federal magistrate has detained him without bond until that hearing.

Philippi’s plan was an attempt “to further his white supremacist ideology –– but the FBI had already compromised his plot,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the news release.

“This case serves as yet another warning to those seeking to sow violence and chaos in the name of hatred by attacking our country’s critical infrastructure: the Justice Department will find you, we will disrupt your plot, and we will hold you accountable,” Garland added.

America’s electrical sector has been on alert after a flurry of physical attacks and vandalism on its infrastructure in 2022. Some threats came from people espousing racially or ethnically motivated extremist ideology “to create civil disorder and inspire further violence,” the FBI said even before threats grew more acute.

Philippi told a confidential source in June he wanted to commit a mass shooting at a YMCA facility in Columbia, Tennessee, a federal criminal complaint alleges. The following month, Philippi introduced the idea for the energy facility plot to another confidential source, it says.

In Philippi’s conversations with undercover agents, he said he had studied previous power grid attacks by accelerationists, who adhere to “a white-supremacist belief that the existing state of society is irreparable and that the only solution is the destruction and collapse of the ‘system,” the complaint states. But he concluded “attacking the electric substations with rifles would not cripple the substations,” the complaint says, noting he looked at two previous firearm attacks in North Carolina.

Philippi previously had noted “if eight or more power stations were attacked, it would cripple the United States power supply,” according to the complaint.

In a July text exchange with a confidential source, Philippi said: “if you want to do the most damage as an accelerationist, attack high economic, high tax, political zones in every major metropolis,” according to the complaint.

Philippi admitted to previously being affiliated with White supremacist groups that call “for the eradication of Jews and people of other races, so to create an all-white homeland, documents showed,” the complaint alleges.

With undercover FBI agents posing as accomplices, Philippi in September allegedly conducted “a reconnaissance of the substation,” the complaint states. He also ordered explosive materials from undercover agents and discussed plans for disguises.

Undercover agents on Saturday went with Philippi to the site where he planned to carry out the attack and acted as his “lookouts” while he attached explosives to the drone in the back of his car, the complaint alleges. Philippi wore a homemade shirt with a German phrase used by people who believe in neo-Nazi ideology, it says.

Minutes before the planned attack, law enforcement agents arrested Philippi.

Domestic violent extremists have increasingly shared tactics with each other on using guns to attack electric power stations in a move that likely escalates the threat to US critical infrastructure, according to a Department of Homeland Security bulletin obtained last year by CNN.

“Electric utilities have always taken substation security seriously, primarily because of safety,” Patrick C. Miller, CEO of Oregon-based Ampere Industrial Security, which works with utilities to boost their security, told CNN in 2023.

“What hasn’t been considered as much, until recently, has been firearms, ballistics, drones and other threats from outside of the substation fence,” Miller said, adding it “takes some planning and investment to move to a more secure posture.”

In late 2022, gunshots fired at two North Carolina power substations left 45,000 homes and businesses without power, and separately two men were arrested in the alleged shutdown of four Washington state substations. In 2020, a drone crashed near a Pennsylvania power substation in what was likely an effort to damage or disrupt the electric equipment, federal law enforcement said.

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