Published Friday, Aug. 9, 2019 | 4:58 p.m.
Updated Friday, Aug. 9, 2019 | 8:30 p.m.
In encrypted messaging with members of a white supremacist group, the Las Vegas man spoke about his disdain for Jewish people, minorities and the LGBTQ community.
Conor Climo discussed attacks on a local synagogue and planned to surveil a downtown Las Vegas bar that he believed catered to LGBTQ clientele, according to federal authorities who on Friday announced his arrest.
When authorities in an FBI-led task force served a search warrant Thursday — when Climo, 23, was arrested — they found a notebook with “hand-drawn schematics” for a possible attack in the Las Vegas area, and drawings of timed explosive devices, according to the office of the U.S. attorney for the district of Nevada.
Climo, a security guard, was being held on a charge of possession of an unregistered firearm, in the form of the component parts of a destructive device, officials said. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe on Friday ordered Climo to remain in federal custody pending an Aug. 23 court appearance.
According to authorities, Climo also discussed with members of the National Socialist Movement hate group the manufacturing of Molotov cocktails and improvised explosive devices. He’s also alleged to have tried to recruit a homeless person to conduct “pre-attack surveillance” on at least one Las Vegas synagogue and “other targets,” officials said, adding that his recruitment proved futile.
The only security guard in Nevada registered with the same name appeared on a local TV news spot in 2016, when he was patrolling his Centennial Hills neighborhood wearing battle gear and carrying an assault rifle and survival knife. He shows and describes to a reporter the four, 30-bullet ammunition magazines he is carrying.
Neighbors expressed concern, but Climo was not arrested at that time.
Metro Police Officer Aden OcampoGomez noted Friday that Nevada is an open-carry weapon state and Climo broke no laws.
A picture on a LinkedIn account under Conor Climo’s name matches the man in the news report, and his workplace matches the registration in the Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board.
His license, which he obtained around the same time as the news report, is current until next year. According to the registration, he didn’t have a “firearm status.”
Climo's employer didn't immediately respond to messages.
The National Socialist Movement was founded in Detroit in 1994, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Until 2007, NSM members protested in full Nazi uniforms, now traded in for black ‘Battle Dress Uniforms,’” said the SPLC, an organization that monitors hate groups.
It wasn’t clear when Climo fell onto the FBI’s radar, but officials said Climo’s communication with the hate group occurred throughout this year.
Lone wolf attacks against Jewish, LGBTQ and minority communities aren't unprecedented.
In October, an anti-Semite stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11. About three years earlier, a man in Orlando shot up Pulse Nightclub, slaying 49 members of the LGBTQ community.
A week ago, a self-described white nationalist allegedly attacked a packed Walmart in El Paso, Texas, leaving at least 22 dead and a couple dozen wounded. According to reports, the suspect confessed to targeting Mexicans in the binational border town.
“As this complaint illustrates, the FBI will always be proactive to combat threats that cross a line from free speech to potential violence,” said Special Agent in Charge Aaron Rouse of the FBI Las Vegas division, in a news release.
“Threats of violence motivated by hate and intended to intimidate or coerce our faith-based and LGBTQ communities have no place in this country,” added U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich for the district of Nevada.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
