back to top
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
HomeShowMilitia members being charged for traveling to Kenosha

Militia members being charged for traveling to Kenosha

2 Min Read

Daily US Times: On Thursday, two members of the 417 Second Amendment Militia group from Missouri traveling to Kenosha, Wisconsin, were arrested by federal officials and charged with illegally possessing a cache of weapons.

Cody E. Smith and Michael M. Karmo were separately charged and ordered to be temporarily detained until their bail hearings on September 8 at 10:30 a.m. in front of Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries.

Smith, 33 and Karmo, 40 worked together, were roommates for a month, were members of the 417 Second Amendment Militia, a pro-law enforcement group, according to the criminal complaint.

According to Karmo’s criminal complaint, they traveled by car to Kenosha to “see for themselves” what was going on at the protests, attended a “Make America Great Again” rally and planned to go to Portland to “take action” if police were defunded.

On Thursday, prosecutors said in a statement: “Kenosha Police Department advised FBI that a law enforcement agency in Iowa had received a tip that Karmo and an unidentified male were in possession of firearms and traveling from Missouri to Kenosha, Wisconsin.”

FBI agents found in their hotel room a Mossberg 500 AB 12-Gauge shotgun, an Armory AR-15 rifle, two handguns, a silencer, ammunition, a drone, body armor, a twisted cable survival saw, a dagger and other materials, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said they each have criminal records and were not authorized to have any ammunition or firearms.

Their criminal complaints contained screenshots of Karmo’s Facebook page where he posed in all black attire and in one photograph he is allegedly holding a gun with a laser.

According to the online court file, an attorney was not listed for Karmo. A request for comment from Smith’s attorney Craig Albee was not returned on Friday.

They each face up to 10 years in prison for each charge, if convicted.

Must Read

Related News