The FBI has arrested three white supremacists, two of whom have military training, days before an extremist pro-gun rally in Richmond, Virginia, which authorities say is attracting "threats of violence" from hate groups and militias.

The three men — Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27; Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33; and William Garfield Bilbrough, 19 — are members of the white supremacist group "the Base," according to an affidavit filed in Maryland court.

The FBI did not respond to requests for comment, but the men reportedly discussed attending the rally on Monday.



"Within The Base’s encrypted chat rooms, members have discussed, among other things, recruitment, creating a white ethno-state, committing acts of violence against minority communities (including African-Americans and Jewish-Americans), the organization’s military-style training camps, and ways to make improvised explosive devices," the court documents state.



The Counter Extremism Project says the Base is a "neo-Nazi, white-supremacist network that describes itself as an 'international survivalist and self-defense network' that seeks to train their members for fighting a race war."

Mathews is an eight-year veteran of the Canadian Army Reserve who is trained in explosives. He was under investigation by the Canadian military for attempting to recruit people for the Base and his white nationalist beliefs when his car was found abandoned last August near the US border.

After he illegally crossed into the US, authorities say, he met up with Lemley and Bilbrough. Lemley and Mathews had been living together in a Delaware apartment for months, allegedly building an assault rifle and attempting to manufacture DMT, a psychedelic drug.

Lemley took the assault rifle to a Maryland gun range on Jan. 2, where an FBI agent reported that multiple bullets could be heard firing at once.

“Oh oops, it looks like I accidentally made a machine gun,” Lemley told Mathews, according to the affidavit. Five days later, Lemley ordered 1,500 rounds of ammunition.

The men were arrested on federal gun charges, as well as those related to harboring an undocumented immigrant.