White Supremacist Allegedly Planned to Use Drone to Destroy Energy Facility: Prosecutors

Mar. 15, 2025

Skyler Philippi Mugshot.Photo:Middle District Police Dept.

Middle District Police Dept.

A Tennessee man who allegedly planned to launch an explosive-laden drone to destroy Nashville’s power grid to “further his violent White supremacist ideology” was arrested over the weekend and charged with federal crimes, according to theDepartment of Justice.

Skyler Philippi, 24, of Columbia, was arrested on Saturday, Nov. 2, and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy an energy facility, according to the criminal complaint and arrest warrant filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

The drone was powered up and the explosive device was armed when Philippi was arrested, the FBI alleges.

“As charged, Skyler Philippi believed he was moments away from launching an attack on a Nashville energy facility to further his violent White supremacist ideology – but the FBI had already compromised his plot,”U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a news release.

He appeared in court on Monday and is scheduled to return on Nov. 13. He remains in custody.

“Accelerationism is premised on the idea that steps can be taken to speed up the collapse of the system, to wit: the destruction of the U.S.”

The investigation began in June, when the FBI learned that Philippi told a confidential source about an alleged plan to commit a mass shooting at a YMCA facility near Columbia, according to the complaint.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

In July, Philippi allegedly discussed how attacking large interstate electric substations would “shock the system” and cause other electric substations to malfunction, adding later on that this could “cripple the United States power supply.”

“If you want to do the most damage as an accelerationist, attack high economic, high tax, political zones in every major metropolis,” Philippi texted one of the sources on July 17, the complaint alleges.

Speaking about the power station during a reconnaissance mission in September, Philippi allegedly stated,  “Holy sh–. This will go up like a f—– fourth of July firework.”

The complaint also outlines how Philippi allegedly told the undercover agents he was going to keep his phone at the hotel they were staying at and bring a flip phone to the alleged scene of the operation.

On Nov. 2, when the agents picked Philippi up from his residence, they told him that the bag next to him contained the explosives and the inert pipe bombs he ordered, the complaint claims. One of the agents replaced the black powder Philippi purchased “with an inert substance so that the pipe bombs would not detonate,” it says.

If convicted, Philippi faces life in prison. His public defender did not immediately respond to PEOPLE request for comment.

source: people.com