3 plead guilty to SUV attacks

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Three men have pleaded guilty to vandalizing sport utility vehicles, construction sites and fast-food restaurants in the Richmond area to protest what they consider environmental abuse and suburban sprawl, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said Adam Blackwell, 20, Aaron Linas, 18, and John Wade, 18, admitted in plea agreements to conspiring to damage and destroy more than 25 SUVs, construction equipment and building sites in Richmond's suburbs on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an underground movement dedicated to halting the destruction of the environment.

The men face up to five years in prison for crimes that caused more than $200,000 in damage. The vandalism took place between July and October 2002.

Prosecutor Brian Hood will recommend a sentence of three to four years in jail. Under the agreement, the men also owe $204,021.86 in restitution.

The men took axes to several SUVs at private homes in Henrico County, used glass-etching cream to deface 25 SUVs at a Ford dealership, and sabotaged vehicles and homes at construction sites. The men also defaced the windows of McDonald's and Burger King restaurants.

The men identified themselves with ELF, which on its Web site opposes violence but advocates financial sabotage and property destruction as legitimate forms of protest.

ELF says its adherents have caused more than $100 million in damages in the United States since 1997. Because of the group's decentralized, nonhierarchical structure, authorities have struggled to apprehend and prosecute ELF's ecoterrorists.

"It's pretty rare to solve these kinds of crimes. These may be one of the first," Mr. McNulty said. Since 2001, four teenagers from New York and a man from Indiana have been arrested in ELF-endorsed incidents.