N.J. faces alarming threats in an unsettling extremism climate, officials warn

It might be the most complex constellation of threats the state has ever faced.

Young people self-radicalizing online. The continued influence of foreign groups like ISIS. And most alarming of all, homegrown extremism, especially among white, racially motivated groups.

They are among the most pressing threats to New Jersey—and the nation—according to the latest threat assessment by the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. And they present an unsettling picture for security officials.

“The homegrown violence, unfortunately ... has been our top one for the last few years,” NJOHSP Director Laurie R. Doran recently told NJ Advance Media in a telephone interview.

While there are no active threats in the state, Homeland officials face a complex, disjointed, and sometimes confusing threat landscape, according to Doran, who has served at the agency for seven years after more than three decades at the CIA.

New Jersey might be known as a centrist, moderate political state. But it has its share of homegrown extremists.

Andrew Takhistov, an 18-year-old East Brunswick man, was apprehended last summer after allegedly plotting to destroy electrical substations in the state “to further his (white supremacist) ideology,” the report said.

Takhistov used social media platforms to threaten attacks while praising previous mass shooters, according to the report. He also expressed plans to travel overseas to join a National Socialist group specializing in “assassinations, attacks on power grids, and other infrastructure sabotage … and bring his experience back to the U.S.,” officials say.

“It does seem like the number, in terms of age, has gone down significantly the past few years of people who are self-radicalized, and the time from when you think about going into (extremism to) actually trying to act … has compressed considerably,” Doran said.

Takhistov, who has pleaded not guilty to soliciting another to engage in criminal conduct to destroy infrastructure, had instructed an undercover law enforcement official to research targets while he tried to recruit and radicalize new members, according to the report.

Social media is increasingly leading to self-radicalization. The risk of a large-scale, highly organized 9/11-style attack is lower today compared to “more soft-target attacks,” such as targeting mass gatherings, Doran said. The New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans is an example, she said, of an individual who was self-radicalized by ISIS and attacked a soft target with multiple casualties.

The transnational terror group has “done a very good job in terms of finding a way to reach people online,” Doran said.

Each threat poses its own challenges. But the greatest difficulty today for authorities might be the diversity of beliefs among those radicalized, who do not necessarily adhere to a single ideology. Sometimes they have even contradictory ideologies, something the FBI has likened to a “salad bar” of hate.

“It’s been a lot more diverse and complex,” Doran said. “We’ve seen a lot of these people who are blending ideologies that, in our minds, don’t necessarily make sense.”

Last spring, authorities arrested an Idaho man who previously engaged in white, racially motivated extremism but then spread ISIS propaganda online and discussed traveling overseas to join the group, according to the report. Alexander Mercurio was ultimately arrested for providing material support to ISIS while planning to “incapacitate his father, steal his firearms, and then conduct a suicide attack at a local church,” the report said.

Abortion-related extremists, anarchist/anti-fascist groups, anti-government organizations, and sovereign citizen radicals were labeled moderate threats.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point for many turning to extremism.

“I think (it was) a benchmark where things changed a little bit,” Doran said. “You had a lot more people who had a lot more time on their hands.”

And foreign terrorist organizations, like ISIS, “were happy to have people look at their propaganda” and self-radicalize, she added.

Authorities are also concerned about the ongoing threat of lone-wolf attackers. These lone extremists harbor personal grievances against corporations and political parties and target high-ranking officials who represent them, according to the report. It cited Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last December in New York City.

Technology is also making it more challenging for law enforcement. Individuals are “relying heavily on social media, and with that, using encrypted messaging and generated AI to spread propaganda,” Doran said.

The threat of nation-states—like Russia, China, and Iran—is also a concern, as governments are using “strategies such as cyber intrusions and attacks, espionage, and theft to actively target critical infrastructure and evade laws to gain economic and military advantage over the U.S.,” said the report, which noted the November arrest of a New Jersey man (who was also a Russian national) “for his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering network that sought to acquire sensitive dual-use electronics for Russian military and intelligence services.”

With the increasing threat from young people, Doran said law enforcement is trying to be proactive, especially with the New Jersey Statewide Threat Assessment Team (NJ STAT), a collaboration among federal, state, and local authorities, mental health professionals, and schools formed “to help provide off-ramps for people,” Doran said.

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Spencer Kent may be reached at [email protected].

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