Five Arrested In Plot To Blow Up Cleveland Area Bridge [UPDATE]

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 1, 2012 3:00PM

FBI displays map detailing planned attack on Cleveland bridge. (Source: WKYC)

The FBI has arrested five men in a sting operation this morning in a plot to blow up a Cleveland, Ohio area bridge.

Douglas L. Wright, 26, Brandon L. Baxter, 20, and Anthony Hayne, 35, were arrested by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force on charges of conspiracy and attempted use of explosive materials to damage physical property affecting interstate commerce. The FBI, in a statement, described the three as "self-proclaimed anarchists."

Charges against two others, Connor C. Stevens, 20, and Joshua S. Stafford, 23, are pending. All five men are charged with plotting to blow up the Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge, a bridge on Route 82 spanning over Cuyahoga Valley National Park connecting the towns of Brecksville and Sagamore Hills, Ohio.

The FBI alleges Wright, Baxter and Hayne formed a group that originally intended to use smoke grenades as a distraction to topple the signs of financial institutions on Cleveland buildings. Their plots later involved using improvised explosive devices containing C-4 to be detonated remotely.

The FBI said the public was in no immediate danger, due to the nature of the sting operation, and that the plot was not related to the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden by Navy Seals.

[Update] 1:25 p.m. CST Fox News Chicago is reporting the five men arrested this morning were also planning on coming to Chicago for the NATO summit. They planned to arrive in Chicago with body armor, gas masks and helmets because "things were going to get crazy" and wanted to leave Cleveland in "a pile of rubble and ashes" while intending to do more damage in Chicago.

Here is video of the FBI press conferences announcing the arrests, which contains photos of the five arrested.