A federal court in Jackson, Tennessee, has sentenced white supremacist Demetrius "Van" Crocker, 41, to 30 years in prison, plus lifetime supervised release, for trying to obtain ingredients for Sarin nerve gas and C-4 explosives from an undercover agent.
The jury heard hours of taped conversations between Crocker and the undercover agent, who pretended to be another white supremacist, in which Crocker used racial slurs and discussed his plans. Crocker talked about exploding a bomb and releasing Sarin gas outside of a courthouse, making batches of poisoned marijuana to kill black residents of Jackson, and spraying African-American neighborhoods with mustard gas from a helicopter. Crocker also told the undercover agent that he hates Jewish people and admires Adolf Hitler.
Crocker, of Carroll County, Tennessee, was sentenced on November 28 following his April conviction on five charges. The charges included one count of attempted possession of a chemical weapon, one count of inducing another person to acquire a chemical weapon, one count of possession of stolen explosives, one count of possession of explosive material with intent to harm an individual or damage or destroy a building, and one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device.
According to court documents, the investigation began in early 2004, around the time Crocker told an acquaintance that Timothy McVeigh "[did] things right." The acquaintance began to hear from Crocker about his violent plans.
Crocker was unaware that the acquaintance was a former sheriff's deputy and a confidential informant for the Carroll County Sheriff's Department Drug Task Force.
Crocker spoke of his previous membership in the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, his anti-government beliefs, his fascination with Adolf Hitler and his idolization of Oklahoma City bomber McVeigh. When asked by the acquaintance if he was worried about killing innocent women and children, Crocker allegedly replied, "F--- them. Let God sort them out."
The case was handed over to the FBI and an agent began working undercover, posing as an employee at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas, where some of the country's remaining chemical weapons are stored. The agent offered to help Crocker obtain explosive materials. Crocker soon began talking about exploding a radioactive bomb outside the U.S. Capitol.
Crocker had reportedly already made nitroglycerin and a version of Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps. He had ingredients for a bomb in his home, as well as several guns which he told the undercover agent he would use to kill any government agent sent to capture him.
On the day October 2004 that the FBI arrested him, Crocker accepted what he believed were ingredients to make Sarin nerve gas and a block of C-4 explosives from undercover agents.
