Self-proclaimed white supremacist and convicted felon held on weapons charges after trying to establish "white private community" in Colorado
A Colorado man has been ordered held in federal detention and his 11 guns were seized after the FBI says he illegally possessed those guns. He allegedly professed Nazi and white supremacist sympathies and wanted to establish a "white private community," according to investigators, in Fremont County, southwest of Colorado Springs.
Chad Edward Keith, 41, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person due to a previous federal weapons conviction. If convicted on the new charges, he could face a fine and up to 10 years in prison.
Keith owns a 2.6-acre property in the town of Cotopaxi. A 13-page federal arrest warrant describes the property as having multiple underground bunkers -- one of which can allegedly protect from an electromagnetic blast -- 10,000-gallon water cistern, 462-foot-deep well and being "100% OFF GRID."
Keith bought two adjacent properties and is alleged to have been planning to build a school for kids younger than high school-age with an "anti-Semitic curriculum."
Eleven guns, along with ammunition, were seized at Keith's property by federal agents, including:
- A .300 Magnum bolt action rifle with no serial number;
- Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun;
- Savage model 93 R17 17HMR caliber;
- Glock 21 .45 caliber;
- Scoped bolt action rifle with a hand-engraved serial number;
- Winchester model 62A, .22 caliber;
- Century Arms C308 Sporter;
- Ruger 10/22 .22 long rifle;
- Mossberg 590 12-gauge shotgun;
- Century Arms WASR-10 7.62x39mm caliber;
- Ruger Super Redhawk .44 magnum.
He also allegedly told an FBI informant he wanted enough space to do "hard core weapons training." That informant shot guns with Keith at Bureau of Land Management land about 30 minutes away from where he lived. The FBI says their informant secretly recorded audio and sometimes video of his interactions with Keith. Screenshots of that footage included in the indictment show a several long guns, with a man, allegedly Keith, shooting at least one of them.
Keith pled guilty in 2003 to one count of possessing a "destructive device," a felony, for which he was sentenced to four years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
While his indictment doesn't detail that original conviction, news articles and court documents from 1999 through 2004 show a man with the same name and age as Keith having been charged and later convicted of planting a homemade bomb in the bathroom of Coushatta High School in Coushatta, Louisiana, where a Chad Edward Keith, 18 years old at the time, was a senior.
The bomb was detonated, causing damage to the school, but it was evacuated before it could go off and no one was injured, according to the Associated Press.
He was also arrested by the Fremont County Sheriff's Office in April on charges of driving without a license and being a fugitive of justice.
Court records show Keith is being represented in the Colorado case by the Federal Public Defender's Office.
In his indictment, Keith allegedly expressed antisemitic viewpoints to the FBI informant. He "has described himself as both a "National Socialist" and a Nazi. I know from my training and experience that the term "national socialism" describes a white supremacy ideology consistent with Nazism," a special agent with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force wrote in her application for an arrest warrant.
Keith allegedly told the informant he has some "serious fucking concerns" that he would "absolutely" die for.
He's due back in court on June 12 and a jury trial has been set for July 24.
