Matthew Greenwood, 32, and Jeremy Crahan, 40, both of Puyallup, Washington, were arrested on Saturday, December 31, after an FBI investigation, U.S. attorney Nick Brown said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
They were charged with conspiracy to damage energy facilities and possession of an unregistered firearm. Conspiracy to attack energy facilities is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while suspects can face 10 years in prison for possession of an unregistered gun.
The attacks on December 25 left 14,000 customers without electricity. The suspects are accused of targeting four substations — the Graham and Elk Plain substations operated by Tacoma Power and the Kapowsin and Hemlock substations operated by Puget Sound Energy.
The suspects’ motives haven’t been released publicly, but news of the energy sabotage pleased far-right groups that for a long time have been threatening to attack the national power grid.
According to the criminal complaint filed with the court on December 31 and unsealed on Tuesday, cellphone and other evidence, including surveillance footage, linked the two men to attacks on the four substations.
At one of them, Tacoma Power captured images of one suspect and the image of a pickup truck that appeared to be facilitating the attacks. When law enforcement officers searched the home of the suspects, they found the clothing pictured in the surveillance footage, as well as two fire arms that hadn’t been registered.
U.S. attorney Nick Brown said: “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.”
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for further comment.
There have been several attacks on critical infrastructure in the United States recently. Three days after the Washington power plants were vandalised, two more power substations in North Carolina were attacked, cutting up to 45,000 people off from electricity and leading local authorities to declare a state of emergency.
