3 plead guilty to SUV attacks

Three men have pleaded guilty to vandalizing sport utility vehicles, construction sites and fast-food restaurants in the Richmond area to protest what they consider environmental abuse and suburban sprawl, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said Adam Blackwell, 20, Aaron Linas, 18, and John Wade, 18, admitted in plea agreements to conspiring to damage and destroy more than 25 SUVs, construction equipment and building sites in Richmond’s suburbs on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an underground movement dedicated to halting the destruction of the environment.

The men face up to five years in prison for crimes that caused more than $200,000 in damage. The vandalism took place between July and October 2002.

Prosecutor Brian Hood will recommend a sentence of three to four years in jail. Under the agreement, the men also owe $204,021.86 in restitution.

The men took axes to several SUVs at private homes in Henrico County, used glass-etching cream to deface 25 SUVs at a Ford dealership, and sabotaged vehicles and homes at construction sites. The men also defaced the windows of McDonald’s and Burger King restaurants.

The men identified themselves with ELF, which on its Web site opposes violence but advocates financial sabotage and property destruction as legitimate forms of protest.

ELF says its adherents have caused more than $100 million in damages in the United States since 1997. Because of the group’s decentralized, nonhierarchical structure, authorities have struggled to apprehend and prosecute ELF’s ecoterrorists.

“It’s pretty rare to solve these kinds of crimes. These may be one of the first,” Mr. McNulty said. Since 2001, four teenagers from New York and a man from Indiana have been arrested in ELF-endorsed incidents.

The Richmond crimes were investigated by a task force made up of FBI agents, Henrico County police officers and members of the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office.

“The FBI takes this category of criminal activity very seriously. For the Richmond field office, this was a priority,” Mr. McNulty said. He noted that an FBI agent traveled to Oregon to interview Blackwell, who attended college there.

“Property damage is a threat to human life. There is a fine line between damaging property and having that result in the loss of human lives,” Mr. McNulty said. “Such violent conduct is not an appropriate way to express discontent with environmental policy and will not be tolerated.”

Investigators first targeted persons known to have ecoterrorist leanings. As they narrowed their investigation to Blackwell, Linas and Wade, they found “a lot of cooperation in the community.”

The men attended Douglas Freeman High School in the spring of 2002 and belonged to the school’s Friends of the Earth environmental club, which did not encourage their violent behavior, Mr. McNulty said.

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