White supremacist planned to blow up synagogue in Colorado

Prosecutors have charged Holzer with domestic terrorism and a hate crime, which can carry a maximum 20-year sentence if convicted.

By World Israel News Staff

A white supremacist has been arrested on Friday in Pueblo, Colorado for planning to blow up a local synagogue, reports multiple news outlets.

According to the reports, the FBI has been tracking Richard Holzer, 27, for several months before his arrest because of anti-Semitic comments he posted on Facebook using multiple aliases.

On one Facebook post, he wrote that “I wish the Holocaust really did happen… they need to die,” the reports said.

On Friday night, he donned a Nazi armband, mask, and armed himself with a machete and went out to meet undercover FBI agents who were posing as fellow skinheads.

“Holzer sent a video of himself [to the undercover agents] showing him putting on a mask, grabbing a machete and saying, ‘May the gods be with me for what I must do,'” FBI agent John W. Smith said.

“This case emphasizes our continued efforts to aggressively and promptly address threats to our community to include violence against places of worship. I cannot stress enough the importance of reporting threats in our neighborhoods,” he added.

At the meetup, Holzer was given a bag of what he thought to be two pipe bombs and dynamite to carry out a bombing attack on Temple Emanuel, a synagogue that he had been scouting out for weeks beforehand. The explosives that the undercover agents gave him were actually fake.

According to court documents, Holzer said at the meeting that he was fighting a holy war and wanted to show everyone that Jews are not wanted here.  He described the “explosives” he was given, as “absolutely gorgeous” and that he was planning on bombing the synagogue at night in order to avoid the police.

Prosecutors have charged Holzer with domestic terrorism and a hate crime, which can carry a maximum 20-year sentence if convicted.

This dreadful plot comes only a year after the horrific shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 people last year.

ColoradoPuebloRichard HolzerTemple Emanuel