Washington

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Prosecutors in the United States (US) on Monday (Sept 9) unveiled criminal charges against two leaders of a white supremacist gang. The prosecutors said that the leaders used Telegram to solicit attacks on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people and immigrants aiming to incite a race war.

In an indictment unsealed in a federal court in Sacramento, prosecutors said that the gang- identified as "The Terrorgram Collective"- used Telegram to celebrate white supremacist attacks around the world and solicit racially motivated violence.

Two leaders taken into custody

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The two white supremacists were identified as Dallas Humber, aged 34, and Matthew Allison, aged 37. Humber belongs to Elk Grove, California while Allison is a resident of Boise, Idaho.

Both Humber and Allison face 15 criminal counts, including soliciting hate crimes and conspiring to provide material support to terrorism.

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Citing officials, a report by the news agency Reuters said that the two leaders were in custody and it was not immediately known if they had lawyers. The most serious charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

As per the indictment, Humber and Allison helped create and promote a document that sought to justify the group's ideology and included detailed instructions on carrying out terror attacks, including how to build bombs. 

Prosecutors also alleged that the pair collaborated on a list of "high-value" targets for assassination that included a sitting US senator and a federal judge who were viewed as enemies of the white supremacist cause.

Humber, Allison became leaders of group in 2022

The indictment further said that Humber and Allison became leaders of The Terrorgram Collective in 2022. They helped oversee a network of Telegram channel group chats that offered support for users to commit white supremacist violence.

Also watch | World DNA: Telegram Flooded with extremist and illegal content

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Apart from targeting top American officials, the group's targets also included critical infrastructure sites, with an overall goal of causing societal collapse in the US, Justice Department officials told reporters on Monday.

"This indictment reflects the department's response to the new technological face of white supremacist violence as those seeking mass violence expand their reach online to encourage, solicit and facilitate terrorist activities,"  an official told reporters. 

(With inputs from agencies)