MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. (WITN) – A Mount Olive man will spend the next 25 years in prison for teaching someone how to use explosives he knew would be used harm or kill law enforcement members.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District says that Christopher Arthur, 40, was sentenced today.
Arthur was convicted in July of 2023 for teaching another person how to make and use an explosive knowing that the individual intended to use that instruction in the murder or attempted murder of federal law enforcement.
Federal officials said that Arthur and his company trained people how to fight “the greatest threat” – which he identified as a militarized force like law enforcement SWAT teams.
The attorney’s office says evidence was presented related to a three-part, how-to video series about how to overthrow the government. During one of those videos, an image reads “Start with your LOCAL Government” and “Set the Standard -> Traitors get HUNG” over the image of a noose.
The investigation into Arthur started when a tactical instruction manual authored by Arthur was found in the belongings of a man who died in a shootout with police New York in May 2022. A review of the man’s cell phone found he had trained with Arthur in Mount Olive for several days in March 2020.
Investigators said in March 2021 a confidential source working with the FBI requested training from Arthur.
During talks with Arthur, the source said they specifically told Arthur that he needed training because the ATF had visited his home and he expected them to return.
“Over the course of a two-and-a-half-hour training, Arthur walked the CS through how to create IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and how to place them to create “fatal funnels,” which could be used to maim or murder anyone entering the CS’s home,” officials say. “During that instruction, Arthur also showed the CS how to create an electric initiator for homemade grenades and bombs and how to make a homemade trip wire. Once he was finished demonstrating how to make the components, Arthur provided them to the CS and explained how to use an old shotgun to create a “thumper” that could launch homemade grenades.”
A search warrant executed at Arthur’s Mount Olive home found an IED placed on the front porch with wires leading to a 9-volt battery powered switch located within the home. Additionally, three IED grenades co-located with a striker plate intended to assist in detonating the IEDs, an illegally altered short barrel rifle with an attached unserialized suppressor (i.e., “silencer”) and a fifth IED were recovered.