Supremacist family who wanted to found whites-only nation is arrested on Arizona compound with massive weapons cache

Kirby Kehoe and his son Cheyne were arrested by ATF agents at their 40-acre Arizona ranch

Both men are convicted felons and were illegally in possession of dozens of weapons

Heavily-armed federal agents have raided a white supremacist family's Arizona compound and seized dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.



Kirby Kehoe and his son Cheyne, 37, are known for allegedly trying to establish a whites-only nation within the United States. Both men are convicted felons and legally barred from possessing firearms.

More than 50 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives geared up on Tuesday and raided the family's 40-acre ranch near Ash Fork, Arizona, about 140 miles north of Phoenix.

Locked and loaded: ATF agents wore heavy armor and carried assault rifles when they raided the compound belonging to two white supremacists

ATF agents, fearing that the Kehoe family would resist violently, went in with armored vehicles and called up 50 agents

Both Kehoe men were arrested without incident, though the family has a violent past.

The Kehoe family has been well-known to law enforcement since the 1990s when authorities say they provided weapons to various white supremacists who committed robberies across the Midwest.



Authorities also said the family was involved in a plot to overthrow the federal government and establish the Aryan Peoples Republic in the Pacific Northwest.

Another son, Chevie Kehoe, is serving a life sentence in federal prison for his role in the 1996 killings of an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and their 8-year-old daughter as part of the plot.

Cheyne Kehoe, who was arrested Tuesday, served prison time in 1998 after a shootout with police in Ohio

Cheyne Kehoe was sentenced in 1998 to more than 24 years in prison for his role in a shootout with Ohio police during a traffic stop about 40 miles northeast of Cincinnati. His sentence later was reduced to 11 years. No officers were injured in the gun battle, but a passer-by was wounded by a bullet fragment.

The family patriarch, Kirby Kehoe, was sentenced in 1999 to nearly four years in prison for racketeering and possession of illegal weapons in a case related to the plot aimed at overthrowing the government. The elder Kehoe, however, has maintained he was never involved in his sons' efforts to establish a whites-only nation and that he isn't a racist.

Mangan said due to the violent nature of the family's past, authorities planned the Monday raid carefully, first setting up surveillance on the property before moving in with search warrants, heavily armed tactical teams and armored vehicles.

He said the raid was conducted in cooperation with law enforcement from around the country and was planned to avoid the potential for a violent confrontation.

'The reason and rationale for having executed the warrant on the property in that manner was driven by public safety, just based on the past history of this individual and the sons,' Mangan said Tuesday.



'When a traffic stop was being conducted in Ohio, it turned into a nationwide manhunt, and we obviously didn't want to revisit that issue.'

Kirby Kehoe is due back in court Thursday for a preliminary and detention hearing. Cheyne Kehoe's next court appearance is set for October 22.