Search warrant records: Feds found gas masks, guns at home of suspected Mich. militia leader

1 day, 3 states, 8 spots in Midwest militia raids

DETROIT — Federal agents investigating what they describe as a Christian militia bent on violence against police seized suspected crack cocaine and steroids, weapons, gas masks and a book of Adolf Hitler’s speeches during raids of members’ homes last month, according to search warrant records.

The raids were conducted over a 4½-hour span in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana on the night of March 27.

Authorities recovered hand grenade instructions, a container of potassium chlorate and other items during a raid that night at the southern Michigan home of David Stone, the suspected leader of the Hutaree.

Federal prosecutors say Stone and eight other members of the militia plotted the mass killings of police officers as a prelude to a larger war against the government. They are charged with seditious conspiracy, or plotting to levy war against the U.S., and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.

The Associated Press on Monday reviewed dozens of pages of search warrant records that were filed last week in federal court.

The items seized by agents included:

— Two cardboard tubes with green/cannon fuse; a 6-by-¾-inch-gallon nipple with end caps; a two-page document about a funnel shape charge; a 2005 daily planner book; a grenade holder; a Hutaree flag; three DVDs labeled “Waco”; a notebook detailing the doctrine and ranks of the Hutaree; and gas masks; at Stone’s trailer home in Lenawee County’s Dover Township.

— Suspected crack cocaine and steroids and a lock pick set at the mobile home of suspected Hutaree member Kristopher Sickles in Sandusky, Ohio.

— A copy of “My New Order” by Hitler; a samurai sword; a jeweled dagger; and a CD titled “Explosives, Ordnance and Demolition;” at the two-story home of suspected Hutaree member Thomas Piatek in Whiting, Ind.

Messages seeking comments were left Monday with lawyers for Stone, Sickles and Piatek.