CINCINNATI — Authorities arrested two members of an Ohio militia group Monday on federal weapons charges.
A federal indictment against 37-year-old Ryan D. King, of Franklin, and 53-year-old Randy D. Goodman, of Ripley, was unsealed Monday. The men are accused of violating the National Firearms Act by possessing unregistered explosives. They each are facing two counts.
In their militia, the United Sheepdogs of Ohio, King and Goodman established a subset they called a "special projects team" and advocated the team construct, use and stockpile explosives they called "crater makers," according to the indictment.
Officials with the Department of Justice said King and Goodman tested the bombs at Goodman's Ripley home in January. The men discussed construction and ignition methods in detail.
According to highlights of a conversation shared by authorities, Goodman asked about "how they built the pressure cookers for the Boston bombers."
"If you really want explosions you would bury these in the driveway, so they go up and out," King was quoted as saying. "We can build land mines, I’ve already built them before, you know that."
In October 2018, King bought inert grenades and a wire assembly in Kentucky. He suggested methods "if we want to get real lethal," and Goodman commented that would make them an elite group, according to the indictment.
At the militia's Christmas party at King's Franklin home, King showed Goodman a collection of parts needed to make a destructive device and commented that a steel pipe "could go under a front sear of a car very easily, engine of a car, wired into the breaking, according to the indictment, and Goodman responded, "I like that, that's the method I like."
Possessing an unregistered destructive device is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Conspiring to do so is punishable by up to five years in prison.
