MALDEN, MASS. (WHDH) - The FBI has called domestic terrorism one of the greatest threats to our country right now.
Tonight we take you inside an FBI sting to stop a Malden man’s deadly plot. The dangerous operation went down six years ago. But now we’re getting to see what agents say they did to catch a homegrown terrorist. Steve Cooper has tonight’s 7 Investigates.
Undercover video obtained by 7 Investigates shows visits to a New Hampshire gun store.
“This is the one when I shoot when I put my thumb over it?” Edward McLarnon asked during one visit while holding a gun.
“Is a 22 powerful enough?” McLarnon asked in another meeting.
Edward McLarnon had a weapons wish list that was detailed and disturbing:
A .22 handgun — the type the mafia uses. A pistol with a silencer. An AK-47 or equivalent. A sniper’s rifle with a scope. A bunch of grenades. Dynamite and C4, an explosive.
He had lethal plans for specific targets like the former Attorney General of Massachusetts.
“Martha Coakley,” McLarnon said.
And the chief judge of Boston’s federal court.
“Judge Saylor,” McLarnon said.
The FBI had received a tip that McLarnon wanted to acquire weapons and kill people.
Agents moved quickly to stop him.
McLarnon thinks another man in the gun store is an arms dealer, but he’s really an undercover FBI agent.
McLarnon tells him about his deadly plan.
“It was very chilling,” FBI Special Agent Brian LeBlanc said. He oversaw the undercover operation back in 2015 and listened live to every word.
“I felt like this is a serious individual that has a plan to commit acts of violence, and we have an opportunity to prevent him from doing it,” LeBlanc said.
McLarnon talked about his hatred for the legal system.
“All federal judges are criminal psychopaths,” McLarnon said. “The judges hate me.”
The FBI says McLarnon blamed the judicial system for his problems.
“I lost my business. I lost my family, my son,” McLarnon said.
He posted on social media about it.
“Courts operate as criminal enterprises,” McLarnon said. “I’m a victim of court corruption.”
But the FBI says McLarnon was no victim.
“He didn’t appear to take responsibility for his own actions that had caused these to happen and he really just wanted revenge. I think he had focused on it so much that it consumed him,” Alyssa Dietrich, an FBI analyst and staff operations specialist said.
McLarnon “I’m killing traitors in the process of them committing treason.”
“He believed he was doing his patriotic duty for calling out judicial corruption, and that the killing of these individuals was going to save the United States,” LeBlanc said.
The operation ended at a New Hampshire rest stop.
McLarnon paid the undercover agent $700 for grenades, bullets, guns, and explosives.
FBI video recorded from a plane recorded agents swooping in to arrest him.
“The team that worked this case worked very hard, long hours, a lot of hard work went into this,” LeBlanc said. “And to see it follow through like that I was very happy and proud.”
After his arrest along a New Hampshire highway, McLarnon was convicted on several charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He appealed those convictions and lost. For 7 Investigates, I’m Steve Cooper.
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