Trio trying to cripple the US power grid and start a race war wore fentanyl-filled 'suicide necklaces'

• A trio of white supremacists has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to attack the US power grid.
• The three men planned to launch an attack to cripple the power grid and bring about a race war.

A group of white supremacists the Justice Department alleges was planning attacks on the US power grid wore "suicide necklaces" filled with fentanyl, which they planned to ingest if captured.

Three men — Christopher Cook, 20, Jackson Sawall, 22, and Jonathan Frost, 24 — pleaded guilty on Wednesday in the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio to one count each of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The men had hatched plans to use assault rifles to bring down the power grid in a bid to start a race war, court documents show.

According to a statement of facts signed by the trio, they carried "suicide necklaces" containing fentanyl that they would swallow if they were caught.

Fentanyl, a type of synthetic opioid, is lethal in large doses. In 2020, a record 93,000 drug-overdose deaths were reported in the US, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl were among the most common narcotics involved in those deaths.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, Frost and Cook met in fall 2019 through a chat group in which Frost floated the idea that he and Cook could attack a power grid.

The pair then began attempting to recruit others to join their cause, per the release. During this process, Cook circulated a reading list of works that promoted white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideologies.

Sawall, a friend of Cook's, joined the group later that year and helped with its recruitment efforts and operations, per the DOJ.

The men assigned themselves a power substation each in separate regions of the US for the attack. Cook was appointed to the northeast, Frost to the southwest, and Sawall to the Midwest, per the court documents.

"There were also conversations about how the possibility of the power being out for many months could cause some serious change or straight-out war, even a race war; additionally, that without power across the country, it could cause the next Great Depression, people wouldn't show up to work, the economy could crash, and there would be a ripe opportunity for potential (white) leaders to rise up," according to the court documents.

According to an FBI affidavit, the trio planned to attack the power grids after the 2020 or 2024 election if then-President Donald Trump or a Republican candidate lost their run for the White House, per USA Today.

The trio held a meeting in Columbus, Ohio, sometime in February 2020, per the DOJ. While there, Frost sold Cook an AR-47 rifle and provided Cook and Sawall with the fentanyl-filled necklaces.

While still in Columbus, the trio's plans were derailed when they ran into the police at a traffic stop, during which Sawall swallowed his fentanyl pill but survived, per the DOJ. When the FBI searched the men's homes in August 2020, they uncovered multiple firearms, chemicals that "could be used to create an explosive device," as well as Nazi-related books and videos, per the court documents.

Each man faces up to 15 years in prison, and their sentencing date has yet to be set.