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RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (KHBS/KHOG) — A grand jury in the U.S. Eastern District of Arkansas has indicted 54 people in an investigation related to a white supremacist group, according to court documents.
The indictment document includes a variety of 32 charges. Not all 54 are being indicted on all 32 charges listed in the document.
The charges including Attempted Murder in Aid of Racketeering, Kidnapping in Aid of Racketeering, Narcotics Conspiracy and others.
All 54 were accused of being members or associates of the New Aryan Empire, Cody Hiland, U.S. Attorney, announced in a press conference Tuesday.
Members of the New Aryan Empire “engaged in, among other things, narcotics trafficking, witness intimidation and retaliation, acts involving murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault,” according to the indictment.
In one incident, a suspected informant’s face was burned with a hot knife, David Rybicki, Deputy Assistant Attorney General said.
The New Aryan Empire was formed in 1990 by a group of inmates being held at the Pope County Detention Center in Russellville, according to the indictment.
The white supremacist group spread across the region both inside and outside prisons. About 5,000 people are counted as members.
The NAE “has moved from our prisons to our neighborhoods,” Rybicki said.
The group has a strict initiation process and code, according to the indictment. Members are barred from fraternizing with people who aren’t white, being homosexual, talking with law enforcement or “snitching” on a fellow member.
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