31 Charged With Conspiracy To Riot, Have Ties To Hate Group: Police

COEUR D'ALENE, ID — Police arrested 31 people found inside a U-Haul who were intending to riot in Coeur d'Alene on Saturday afternoon. Those arrested are believed to have ties to Patriot Front, a white nationalist hate group, police said.

The group was intending to riot downtown and other areas of the city, Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White said at a news conference.

Police received a call around 1:30 p.m. from a person who spotted the group loading into the back of the U-Haul with masks and shields and described them as a "little army," according to authorities.

Authorities found the U-Haul shortly after and pulled it over on Northwest Boulevard near Paul Bunyan, close to the Coeur d'Alene Pride in the Park event hosted by the North Idaho Pride Alliance. Police found dozens of men in the truck all dressed in khakis with navy blue shirts, beige hats and a white cloth covering for their faces, according to authorities.

The members of the group were booked into Kootenai County Jail and are facing charges of conspiracy to riot, White said. The group was made up of people from at least 11 states, including Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Virginia, and Arkansas.

Police said it would take several days to process evidence from the U-Haul.

Patriot Front is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist hate group that split from Vanguard America in 2017 after the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The group's manifesto calls for the formation of a white ethnostate in the United States, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.