Orlando Sentinel – by Bethany Rodgers
OCALA — Acting on a tip about a cache of missiles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, Marion County authorities said Monday that they might have thwarted a series of attacks against the Eustis Police Department, a church and a youth camp.
Investigators aren’t yet certain what crimes might have been prevented by arresting two men and seizing a weapons stockpile from a shed on a 9-acre site in Marion County about 13 miles north of Eustis.
“There is some sophistication to this outfit,” sheriff’s Maj. Terry Bovaird said. “This isn’t like somebody found a joint somewhere and a guy had a small, little weapon. This is something that is significant.”
Among the items seized were 22 guns, including at least one rifle with a scope, several containers of black powder sheriff’s officials said could be used to make explosive devices, two bulletproof vests along with powdered and crack cocaine, prescription pills and more than a pound of marijuana. Also discovered during Friday’s raid were devices resembling detonators that are under evaluation by agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to sheriff’s Lt. Brian Dotten.
Two men found at the 12-foot-by-25-foot shed were arrested. Christopher Conger, 32, of Umatilla is charged with seven criminal counts, and Jeremy Robertson, 29, of Ocala faces eight counts. The alleged offenses include possession of cocaine with intent to sell, grand theft of a firearm, using or displaying a firearm during a felony and wearing a bulletproof vest during certain crimes.
Investigators are searching for another person of interest, Bovaird said.
Authorities acted after an informant at the Lake County Jail on Thursday told a detective about the planned strikes Monday on the Eustis department, a church and the Florida Elks Youth Camp in Umatilla. The tipster said the individuals involved in the plot kept a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and “missiles” inside a safe at the shed.
Investigators found a safe hidden under the floor but no grenade launcher or missiles, Bovaird said.
The Eustis Police Department was on the list of targets because the individuals didn’t like the way officers had handled a particular call, officials said.
The reasons for the potential attacks on the church and youth camp were unclear from the informant’s account, Dotten said.
Bovaird said authorities don’t have proof that the men planned to carry out attacks on the Police Department, church and youth camp but took the reports seriously.
“As to a sense of being false bravado, who knows?” he said. “We really don’t know.”
Conger and Robertson told investigators they used the shed, which contained a television and refrigerator, as a “hangout” and didn’t know about the guns and drugs, Dotten said.
Some of the contraband was in plain sight when authorities entered the structure, while other items were socked away in garbage cans or hidden under cushions, he said.
Eustis police Chief Fred Cobb said that, although his department was “familiar with one of the two suspects,” his records showed the men had no recent encounters with the agency. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office on Friday alerted Cobb to a possible attack on his agency, he said.
“The minute they had them in custody, we were relieved and didn’t feel the need to staff up or do anything out of the ordinary,” he said.
brodgers@tribune.com or 352-742-5927
Copyright © 2015, Orlando Sentinel
“… several containers of black powder sheriff’s officials said could be used to make explosive devices,…”
Or ammo.
“Also discovered during Friday’s raid were devices resembling detonators that are under evaluation by agents…”
Resembling? That sounds concrete enough for those @ssclowns.
“Bovaird said authorities don’t have proof that the men planned to carry out attacks on the Police Department, church and youth camp but took the reports seriously.”
Give ’em a day or two, they’ll manufac… er, I mean… ‘discover’ some.
Two of the guns are air guns. The others are mostly .22,s and black powder guns. I think ther was a flintlock there to.
The rocket was a nurf rocket.