Elf Terrorist Eric McDavid Sentenced to Almost 20 Years

Convicted ELF eco-terrorist Eric McDavid

KCRA News (5-8-08) reports:

A man convicted of conspiracy in an eco-terror case was sentenced Thursday to 19 years and seven months in prison, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said.

Eric McDavid, 30, was convicted in March of conspiring to damage or destroy property by fire and an explosive.

The suspected Earth Liberation Front member threatened to bomb Nimbus Dam and the forest service building in Placerville.

"Today's severe punishment of nearly 20 years in federal prison should serve as a cautionary tale to those who would conspire to commit life-threatening acts in the name of their extremist views," Scott said in a statement. [Full text]

The FBI (6-30-08) has published an article about McDavid's case titled "PUTTING INTEL TO WORK Against ELF and ALF Terrorists":

In early 2006, eco-terrorist Eric McDavid and two associates met in a secluded cabin in Dutch Flat, California to discuss making improvised explosive devices and to choose targets to bomb. Soon after, they began casing the targeted facilities and buying supplies to make bombs. But before they started mixing the ingredients, we swooped in and arrested them.

How did we know what McDavid was up to? How were we able to prevent attacks that could have caused thousands or millions of dollars in property damage and possibly harmed people?

In a word, intelligence.

Our intelligence—which included the use of an FBI source who was actually with McDavid and his associates inside that California cabin—allowed us to piece together the entire plot ahead of time.

...[E]co-terrorists and animal rights extremists are one of the most serious domestic terrorism threats in the U.S. today…for several good reasons:

-The sheer volume of their crimes (over 2,000 since 1979);
-The huge economic impact (losses of more than $110 million since 1979);
-The wide range of victims (from international corporations to lumber companies to animal testing facilities to genetic research firms); and
-Their increasingly violent rhetoric and tactics (one recent communiqué sent to a California product testing company said: “You might be able to protect your buildings, but can you protect the homes of every employee?”).

ELF and ALF are probably the names you’re most familiar with. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are loosely-organized movements whose adherents engage in crimes like arson, fire bombings, vandalism, intimidation, assaults, stalking, etc. No membership dues are necessary—the only way to become a “member” is to engage in “direct action”…criminal activity designed to cause economic loss or destroy the victim company’s operations.

...So whatever happened to Eric McDavid? In May, he was sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison. [Full text]