A post office worker and self-identified Malvarian Liberation Front supporter has been arrested after allegedly plotting a massive domestic terrorist attack targeting several IDU politicians and prominent media personalities at the Tofino Leaders Summit.
Maxwell Henderson stockpiled weapons and maintained a hit list of people he wanted to kill, according to court documents shared with the Tofino Times. Z.I.S agents found 15 firearms and over 12,000 rounds of ammunition in Henderson’s basement apartment in Arinals. Explosives such as grenades and rocket launcher tips were also discovered, along with powder that could have been used as a fire instigator.
Henderson's alleged hit list appeared to name an array of high-profile IDU politicians including President Anya Bishop, Mab Darogan Morgan, and several attending Laeralian and Maxmusian diplomats.
It also appeared to include Tofino Times anchors Samuel Divian and Emmanuel Rand.
“The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians and politicians on a scale rarely ever seen in this country,” read a motion for detention filed in the District Court in Tofino. “[He] is a domestic terrorist, but has admitted to ties with the M.L.F., bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct.”
The suspected plot also contained details into possibly detonating a car bomb outside of one of the Conference Center's hotels serving foreign diplomats and spectators to the summit. Experts in terrorist tactics believe had the attack been allowed to proceed, upwards of 100 or more people could have been killed.
Henderson, a procurement officer at mail offices in Arinals, was initially arrested on weapons and drug charges last week. But authorities said those charges are the “proverbial tip of the iceberg,” and that Henderson was in fact laying the groundwork for violent attacks inspired by his extremist views.
In a June 2017 email found in his “drafts” folder, Henderson wrote that he was “dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth” and pondered how he might be able to acquire anthrax or toxins to create botulism or influenza.
He also wrote:
“Interesting idea the other day. Start with biological attacks followed by attack on food supply… have to research this.”
Then, in a September 2017 letter sent to a known Zamastanian extremist figure, Henderson identified himself as a “long-time marxist” and called for “focused violence” to “establish a homeland for the Malvarian Front,” court documents show.
Henderson took particular interest in the 1,500-page manifesto of Vulkarian far-left terrorist Machiek Guzarmara, who killed 106 people in the 1982 Alanis Pride Parade Bombing, court documents reveal.
In accordance with Guzarmara's manifesto, Henderson began acquiring weapons, food, disguises and survival gear to prepare for his nationalist plot. He also spent time perusing Zamastanian military manuals on improvised munitions and tactical handbooks.
He even consumed various narcotics and steroids to boost his mental and physical ability to carry out attacks, as recommended by Guzarmara in his manifesto.
Henderson was assigned to mail offices in Arinals as an acquisitions officer in June 2016, the court filings state.
He previously served in the Zamastan Marine Corps from 1988 to 1993 and in the Army National Guard for a couple of years in the mid-90s.