CLEVELAND, Ohio – The FBI arrested five men Monday evening, saying they had planted what were believed to be explosive devices under the Ohio 82 bridge over Cuyahoga Valley National Park as part of a May Day protest today.

The five men were “self-proclaimed anarchists,” who intended to detonate two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) under the bridge in Sagamore Hills, but had purchased the inert devices from undercover FBI agents, officials said.

View Larger Map

Members of the group actually "placed the devices at the base of concrete pillars ... and attempted to detonate them at a remote location" on Monday, but what they thought were bombs were actually "intert devices," the FBI said in a news conference this morning.

Arrested by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and charged with conspiracy and attempted use of explosive materials were: Douglas Wright, 26; Brandon L. Baxter, 20; and Anthony Hayne, 35.

All three are “self-proclaimed anarchists who formed a small group and considered a series of evolving plots over several months,” according to the complaint filed today by the FBI.

Wright had also talked about "getting a car that they can drive into the Federal Reserve Bank" in Cleveland to blow it up, according to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Ryan Taylor. (See the affidavit in the DocumentCloud reader below.)



The arrests Monday evening show that “the threat we face is a diverse one and terrorist can come from many hues and many homelands,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

“Despite the defendants’ worst intentions and aims during the entire course of yesterday’s operation, the public was never in danger,” Dettelbach said. “The defendants never possessed at any time any really explosive materials and the arrests warrants were signed before they got in the car and went to the bridge.”

Also arrested, but not charged, were Connor Stevens, 20 and Joshua Stafford, 23. Anthony said Stevens and Stafford were currently being charged, officials said.

FBI officials said the men had intended to disrupt commuters today.

“The public was never in danger from the explosive devices, which were controlled by an undercover FBI employee,” the FBI said in a written statement this morning. “The explosives that the defendants allegedly purchased and attempted to use were inoperable and posed no threat to the public.”

May Day protests were also taking place in other U.S. cities today, including Seattle, where "the most visible organizing effort by anti-Wall Street groups since Occupy encampments came down in the fall" were taking place, according to the Seattle Times website.