Wannabe Proud Boy Found With 2 Swords, 75 Combat Knives, Ammo: Feds
PARLER THREATS
An associate of the far-right Proud Boys group illegally amassed 1,000 rounds of rifle ammunition, 25 rounds of shotgun ammunition, 75 military-style combat knives, two hatchets, and two swords, federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday. Queens, New York resident Eduard Florea was arrested Tuesday night after allegedly making violent threats in support of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He faces a federal charge of being a convicted felon in possession of ammunition.
Federal prosecutors said Florea described himself to the FBI an aspiring Proud Boy who had not yet attended enough meetings to qualify as a member of the group, but was in Washington, D.C. with Proud Boys during a pro-Trump rally in December when they allegedly vandalized a church’s “Black Lives Matter” banner.
Florea allegedly cheered on the Capitol riot, and offered to send violent assistance in posts made on conservative social media site Parler both before and after the riot under the name “LoneWolf War.” He posted on Parler the day before the riot that he would be “definitely slicing a throat” in Washington. Florea allegedly also threatened Senator-elect Raphael Warnock (D-GA), posting “dead men can’t pass shit laws.”
As the riot began, Florea posted that he had “3 cars full of armed patriots” with loaded guns guns who “are just waiting for the word” and raised the prospect of killing people in New York as well, according to prosecutors.
“Let’s go,” Florea allegedly posted. “I will be reaching out to patriots in my area so we can come up with a game plan. Here in New York we are target-rich. Dead men can’t pass shit laws, I will fight, so help me god.”
Eastern District of New York Judge Sanket Bulsara ordered Florea held indefinitely ahead of his trial at a Wednesday hearing, saying the evidence in the case suggested a “premeditated plan to exact violence.” Florea’s alleged Parler posts influenced the decision to hold him, according to Bulsar, who said they suggested “an abhorrence of the rule of law and the institutions that make our country run.”