Two men from South Georgia have been accused of plotting domestic terrorism on an Alaskan facility. The men have been deemed as conspiracy theorists.
WALB News reported that Michael Mancil, 30, and James Dryden Jr., 22, were arrested by Coffee County Sheriff's investigators on Thursday. It was found that the men planned to infiltrate a research facility in Alaska.
Investigators revealed that they were able to seize massive amount of arsenal. Apparently, Mancil and Dryden planned to attack the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP).
"We were really, really concerned about all the arsenal that they were piling up," Coffee County Sheriff Doyle Wooten said. Arsenal found on the 200 block of Jim Road in Coffee County were four AR-15 rifles, four Glock hand guns, a Remington rifle and about two to three thousand rounds of ammunition.
Investigators were also able to seize radios, two flak jackets, $5,500 worth of money and marijuana. The conspiracy theorists' plot was foiled when police investigated Mancil for possibly selling drugs.
Mancil was found to have been trying to buy a large amount of weapons. A local gun shop alerted the authorities.
"He's never known to be violent. This past four to six weeks he just snapped and just changed," Wooten added. "His whole personality changed."
It was noted that the men wanted to destroy HAARP because they believe that the facility is able to manipulate the weather. It is also believed that the program is able to control people's minds and trap souls.
HAARP is now owned by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It was previously a U.S. Air Force lab.
According to BuzzFeed News, university officials admitted that the facility's transmitter has not been used for over two years. The school was alerted of the purported plot on Monday.
"The conspiracy theories are mostly just an annoyance," Sue Mitchell, the university's spokesperson, said. "We are trying to be very open and transparent about the great research that this facility is capable of."
