Three members of a white supremacist group based in California have been arrested by the FBI for allegedly inciting riots at far-right political rallies including the deadly march in Charlottesville, Virginia last year.
Robert Rundo, who co-founded and led the Rise Above Movement, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport, while two others, Robert Boman and Tyler Laube were arrested Wednesday morning, the FBI said.
A fourth suspect, Aaron Eason, remains at large.
"Throughout 2017, the defendants and other RAM members traveled to political rallies, including in Huntington Beach, California, on March 25, 2017, Berkeley, California, on April 15, 2017, San Bernardino, California, on June 20, 2017, and Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11-12, 2017," an affidavit said.
"RAM members violently attacked and assaulted counter-protesters at each of these events."
Prosecutors have described the Rise Above Movement as a militant white supremacist group that espouses anti-Semitic and other racist views and meets regularly to train in boxing and other fighting techniques.
The latest arrests come just weeks after the indictments of four other California members of RAM for allegedly inciting the Virginia riot.
In August 2017, they made their way to the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville with their hands taped, "ready to do street battle," U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen said at a press conference announcing the charges earlier this month.
Hundreds of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville in part to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Clashes erupted Aug. 11 as a crowd of white nationalists marching through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches and chanting racist slogans encountered a small group of counter-protesters.
The next day, more violence broke out between counter-protesters and attendees of the "Unite the Right" rally, which was believed to be the largest gathering of white nationalists in at least a decade. Street fighting exploded before the scheduled event could begin and went on for nearly an hour in view of police until authorities forced the crowd to disperse.
After authorities forced the rally to disband Aug. 12, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters.
The death toll rose to three when a state police helicopter that had been monitoring the event crashed, killing two troopers.
President Donald Trump infamously took 48 hours to respond only to blame "both sides" despite overwhelming evidence that neo-Nazis were the principal source of violence.
