Osceola County Jail via Reuters

Patricia and Marcus Faella, reputed leaders of the white supremacist group American Front, deny they were planning for a violent race war.

The reputed leaders of a central Florida white supremacist group accused of planning for a “race war” say they are proud Americans who are being persecuted for their beliefs.

Marcus Faella, 39, and his wife, Patricia Faella, 36, told News 13 they had no intentions of being violent toward anyone.

Interviewed at their compound in St. Cloud in rural Osceola County, Fla., the Faellas acknowledged their ideas are different than others, the TV station reported Thursday.

"At this point, it looks like we are being persecuted for our politics," Patricia Faella told News 13. "I am really -- we are out here because something does make us uncomfortable, but we are not trying to bother anyone else. We are just trying to be left alone."

Marcus Faella said he and his wife are proud Americans, according to News 13.

The Faellas are among at least 11 people connected to the Florida branch of a skinhead group called the American Front arrested in the past week. They are accused of felony conspiracy and hate crimes, including taking part in paramilitary training on the Faellas’ compound in preparation for what Marcus Faella believed was “an inevitable race war,” according to court documents.

A government informant infiltrated the group during the two-year investigation and said members trained with AK-47s, shotguns and explosives at the Faellas' fortified barbed-wire compound. According to a court affidavit, American Front members discussed acts of violence that included causing "a disturbance” at City Hall in Orlando and attacking a rival skinhead group during a May Day rally.

Patricia Faella denied the group was planning a race war. "Some symbols mean something from one person to the next," she told News 13. "All we are asking you is to reserve judgment."

The Faellas were arrested Friday and released from the Osceola County Jail after posting $500,000 bond each.

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The father of another defendant, Richard Stockdale, 23, of St. Cloud, said the charges against his son are “fabricated and trumped-up.”

“I know my son is a good kid, and his friends are nothing but prideful Americans,” Richard Stockdale Sr. told The Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday. “I can’t wait to hear what (authorities) have. It’s all been blown way out of proportion. It’s amazing that when you say hooray for the white man, you go to jail.”

Patty Kenny, the mother of defendant Christopher Brooks, 27, of St. Cloud, told FloridaToday.com her son was "a very good kid, respectable."

"I knew about the tattoos, I knew about him, but I didn’t know about the command post and the guns and the stuff they’re saying is happening," she said.

"As far as I knew these were just friends that he hung around with,” Kenny told FloridayToday.com. “I feel like if I was on the side of the road in the middle of the night I could call the friends up and they would come and help me out."

Earlier: Reputed white supremacists accused of planning race war

"They’re more survivalists than terrorists,” Brooks' father, Thomas Kenny, told FloridaToday.com. “They want to be able to live off the land. I don’t  see them wanting to terrorize people or starting wars."

Meanwhile, some American Front backers are trying to muster support online for those arrested.

A petition called “Free Richard 'Adam' Stockdale and the AF 11” was started by a person using the name Jbug Garrean. “The media is spinning this story to make it appear as if these people were plotting 'Terroristic Attacks,' when in all reality all these people are guilty of is being white,” the petition states.

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Osceola County Jail

From top left: Christopher Brooks, Marcus Faella, Patricia Faella, Paul Jackson, Jennifer McGowan. From bottom left: Mark McGowan, Kent McLellan, Dustin Perry, Diane Steven, Richard Stockdale.

Members of a white supremacist skinhead group called American Front trained with AK-47s, shotguns and explosives at a fortified compound in central Florida to prepare for what its reputed leader believed to be an “inevitable race war,” prosecutors said Tuesday.

According to court documents, members of American Front discussed acts of violence that included causing “a disturbance” at City Hall in Orlando, shooting at a house and attacking an anti-racist skinhead group.

At least 10 members of the group, which authorities described as a militia-styled, anti-Semitic domestic terrorist organization, have been arrested in Florida since the weekend, including at least three people on Tuesday.

The felony arrest charges include paramilitary training, attempting to shoot into an occupied dwelling, and evidence of prejudices while committing an offense. The last charge falls under Florida's hate-crimes law.

“This investigation is a result of our ongoing partnership with local law enforcement and federal agencies in a concentrated effort to stamp out hate crime in our community,” Ninth Circuit State Attorney Lawson Lamar said in a statement Tuesday.

His office said he would not comment further on the case because the investigation is ongoing.

According to a court statement from Agent Kelly Boaz, a sworn deputy for the Orange County sheriff’s office and investigator with the state attorney's office, that was filed in support of an arrest warrant, the group was led by Marcus Faella, 39, of St. Cloud, Fla. He and his wife, Patricia Faella, 36, were among those arrested over the weekend.

“Marcus Faella has been planning and preparing the AF for what he believes to be an inevitable race war. Faella has stated his intent during the race war to kill Jews, immigrants, and other minorities. Faella believes the race war will take place within the next few years based on current world events.”

Much of the information of the alleged plots came from an informant who infiltrated the group in mid-2010.

According to Boaz:

Faella viewed himself and fellow members of the American Front as “protectors of the white race.” He regularly conducted firearms, explosives and military/tactical training at his rural property in Saint Cloud and in the swamps of a Florida wildlife management area.

Faella’s remote property was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by two pit bulls. It contained fortified entrenchments built from railroad timbers, cement piling and other materials.

Faella regularly held weapons training on his compound, where he also stored water, meals ready to eat and other survivalist-type supplies. During target practice he told participants to visualize the jugs of water they were shooting at as the heads of black people, which he referred to by the N-word.

Read local coverage from WESH

In July 2011, an American Front member from Missouri who was also in the National Guard visited the compound and conducted paramilitary training, including hand-to-hand combat techniques, that he learned from the Guard.

Last November, an American Front member, Jessy Brown, committed suicide with a 12-gauge shotgun on Faella’s property, the informant reported. The weapon belonged to Faella.

In January, a recruit beat up a former American Front member at a local bar for “comments made against the AF on Facebook.” No charges were filed in that case.

In February, Faella started planning to “cause a disturbance” at Orlando City Hall “so the media would report on it and bring new members to AF.” No attack was ever carried out.

Faella also wanted members to “hunt down” members of an anti-racism skinhead group called REDS and “put their teeth to the curb” – an apparent reference to violent acts portrayed in “American History X,” a 1998 movie about the roots of race hatred in America.

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Law enforcement became increasingly concerned when the informant reported that Faella and his followers were plotting to attack REDS members during “May Day” protests on May 1 in Melbourne, Fla., and “shoot up” the house of a REDS official.

Fearing that his cover might be blown, the informant destroyed his cellphone after removing the memory card. He fled the area and contacted police.

The May Day confrontation apparently never took place.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Ala.-based hate watchdog, describes the American Front as a California-based group of skinheads with a propensity for violence. The group was founded in the late 1980s, faded from national headlines in the 1990s and then saw a major resurgence around 2007 under new leader David Lynch.

Lynch was killed by an unknown attacker in his Sacramento, Calif., home on March 2, 2011. In California, the group has shrunk significantly. “Now, most of its activities – and, apparently, most of its members – are in Florida,” the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok wrote on the center’s Hatewatch blog.

In addition to the Faellas, others arrested in Florida include:

• Jennifer McGowan, 25, of Kissimmee
• Mark McGowan, 29, of Cocoa
• Diane Stevens 28, of Kissimmee
• Kent McLellan, 22, of St. Cloud
• Paul Jackson, 25, of St. Cloud
• Christopher Brooks, 27, of St. Cloud
• Richard Stockdale, 23, of St. Cloud
• Dustin Perry, 21, of Kissimmee

WESH contributed to this story.

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