White supremacist who once planned 'hit squad' gets more prison time
ALBANY -- A 24-year-old white supremacist from Washington County who once planned to assemble a "hit squad" to murder Black and Jewish people was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in federal prison for his latest crime: Possessing two homemade rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Shane Robert Smith, 24, of Whitehall, was prohibited from possessing a firearm due to his 2016 conviction for possessing a machine gun. Convicted felons, under federal law, cannot own guns. But in December 2020, federal probation officers searched Smith's home and found the rifles and ammunition, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino imposed a 41-month sentence on Smith, who was convicted in a case involving the Albany field office of the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and federal office of Probation and Pretrial Services.
The judge sentenced Smith in his last case to 37 months in prison after he was caught in an undercover federal sting. In that case, the defendant joined a Russian social media network and listed his interests as "guns, gunsmithing, building bombs, knives, guerilla warfare, preserving my race and folk, and destroying the government," court papers showed.
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