Joseph Mahmoud Dibee has been on the run for 12 years but now he’s facing justice after he was captured in Cuba boarding a plane for Russia and extradited to the U.S. for trial. Dibee is allegedly a member of the Earth Liberation Front which was involved in a string of arson and vandalism attacks in the late 90s. From KGW8:

In 2006, a federal grand jury in Oregon indicted Dibee and 11 alleged co-conspirators. The conspirators, known as “The Family,” have been linked to more than 40 criminal acts between 1995 and 2001, the DOJ said. Those alleged crimes range from vandalism to arson and have caused more than $45 million in damages, according to the DOJ. One of the pre-planned crimes Dibee was allegedly linked to was the arson of a meat-packing plant in Redmond, Oregon in 1997. Dibee and four other coconspirators burned down Cavel West on July 21, 1997, causing $1.2 million in damage, according to Billy Williams, U.S. District Attorney in Oregon… “More than two decades ago, a loosely affiliated group of environmental extremists set out to express their views using force, violence, sabotage, mass destruction, intimidation, and coercion,” said U.S. Attorney Williams. “Thankfully no innocent lives were taken by these senseless acts…Dibee will now, as many of his co-conspirators have before, face the consequences of his actions.”

Here’s a more detailed description of the arson attack Dibee is charged with by U.S. District Attorney Billy Williams:

It’s hardly ever mentioned now but ELF, ALF, and other eco-terrorists have carried out over 1,000 attacks causing more than $100 million in damage since the 90s. Many of those responsible have never been caught. The FBI considered the groups the number one domestic terrorist threat.

Eco-extremism is far from being a thing of the past. Last year I wrote about another eco-extremist group called Deep Green Resistance which filed a lawsuit demanding that the Colorado River be legally recognized as a person. On its website, the group envisions a campaign of sabotage which could eventually end modern civilization.

As this 60 Minutes report from 2005 demonstrates, some ELF proponents at the time were not content to limit themselves to arson and vandalism. Some were working themselves up to justifying the murder of researchers and ranchers: