A Queen Creek man was among four arrested Wednesday on suspicion of threatening and intimidating journalists and activists, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queen Creek, was arrested Feb. 26 and charged in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the press release said. He’s accused of gluing a threatening poster onto the home of an editor of a Phoenix-area Jewish publication on Jan. 25, according to a complaint filed the district court. 

Mala Blomquist, an editor at Arizona Jewish Life, told The Arizona Republic she found the poster about Feb. 5 glued to a bedroom window of her Phoenix home.

The poster, titled “Your Actions Have Consequences,” had her name and home address at the bottom along with the words “you have been visited by your local Nazis,” she said. The poster also included an outline of a hooded figure that appeared to be wearing a bandanna with a skull on it and holding a Molotov cocktail, according to the complaint. 

Blomquist is an Arizona native and has been an editor at the Jewish lifestyle magazine for four years. She said she’s not Jewish but was likely targeted because of her role at the magazine. 

“It’s terrifying that people have to live with this worry and fear all the time,” Blomquist said. “It’s just beyond my comprehension that someone can hate you for who they are or what they believe.”

FBI tried to warn editor of possible threat

Soon after finding the poster, the FBI arrived at her home to alert her of the possible situation, which is when she reported the poster to them, she said. They had visited her home a few times before, however, she did not answer them. 

Blomquist said she learned of Garza’s arrest Wednesday. She said she did not know him and did not see the person who glued the poster onto her home. 

Since finding the poster, Blomquist and her husband have installed a security system at their home. 

“It affects everything you do, it affects the way you walk out and look on the street to make sure no one’s around or there are no different looking cars that don’t belong in the neighborhood,” she said. “I’m constantly looking over my shoulder.”

Garza and another person not identified in the complaint also visited the residence of a member of the Arizona Association of Black Journalists on Jan. 25; however, the complaint did not provide further information about the incident. 

Authorities did not release the names of the journalists involved or the publications they may be associated with. 

Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, of Redmond, Washington; Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas; and Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, of Spring Hill, Florida, were also arrested and charged on Wednesday. 

All four of the men were referred to in the press release as “racially motivated violent extremists.”

Man believed to be ‘high-level member’ of neo-Nazi group

Shea was believed to be “a high-level member and primary recruiter for the Atomwaffen Division,” according to the complaint. 

Atomwaffen Division is a neo-Nazi extremist group and “a terroristic national socialist organization,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

The complaint cites a Seattle Times article published on Feb. 23, 2018, about Atomwaffen Division and states that the article identified several of Atomwaffen Division’s members nationwide, including Cole. Since being identified, some members of the group moved their online presence to an encrypted electronic communication service called Wire, the complaint states. 

There, Shea and Cole organized a private group chat “to collaborate and coordinate an effort to deliver threatening messages to journalists’ homes and media buildings,” the complaint said. Garza and Parker-Dipeppe, among others, were identified as participants in the chat, the complaint said. 

Shea and Cole are accused of creating threatening posters and delivering them electronically to members of the online chat group. Some members of the group then printed and delivered or mailed the posters to targeted journalists or activists.

The posters included Nazi symbols, figures with guns. and threatening language, according to the complaint. One poster also featured a man with press credentials around his neck and figures behind him holding guns, the complaint said. 

In the Seattle area, the posters were mailed to a TV journalist who reported on Atomwaffen and two people associated with the Anti-Defamation League, the press release said. 

In Tampa, the group targeted a journalist but delivered the poster to the wrong address, the press release said. 

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Seattle, Tampa, Houston and Phoenix, according to the press release.

It’s being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Woods with assistance from U.S. Attorneys Offices in the Middle District of Florida, Southern District of Texas, District of Arizona and Central District of California, the press release said. 

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @curtis_chels. 

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