A Warsaw, Missouri, man and a Tennessee man were indicted Wednesday by a Jefferson City grand jury for allegedly conspiring to "go to war" with Border Patrol officers.
A news release from U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore says Jonathan O'Dell, 33, of Warsaw, and Bryan Perry, 37, of Clarksville, Tennessee, were charged in a 44-count indictment Wednesday. The bevy of charges supersede a previous indictment with new charges.
The men allegedly participated in a conspiracy to kill members of the Border Patrol and planned to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to shoot at illegal migrants. The indictment says they also planned to assault and injure government officers and employees as part of a militia group they allegedly recruited others to throughout 2022. O'Dell's residence became a base of operations for the men, according to the release.
They were arrested after Perry posted online videos about their plans and discussed their intention to "start a war" over the phone.
When law enforcement approached the residence, Perry allegedly fired 11 rounds from a rifle before they were taken into custody.
The FBI located six firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, body armor, explosive mixtures and other items.
Both men were charged with seven counts of the attempted murder of FBI special agents, seven counts of assaulting FBI agents with a deadly weapon, three counts of assaulting FBI special agents, 14 counts of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and one count of damaging federal property.
O'Dell was also charged with one count of possessing a firearm while subject to a court order of protection, one count of making a false statement to the FBI and one count of threatening to injure another person.
Perry also faces two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, one count of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, one count of the possession of body armor by a violent felon, one count of possessing an explosive and one count of threatening to injure another person.