Early Saturday morning, federal and state agents arrested a man for committing at least three acts of sabotage against the central Arkansas power grid.
Jason Woodring, 27, was charged in destruction of an energy facility after the Lonoke County Sheriff's office received several complaints on Friday about an explosion on John Shelton Road in Jacksonville, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas Christopher Thyer said.
Authorities determined those explosions occurred under power lines near Woodring's home, according to the news release. FBI agents also responded to the scene and noted that a blue hose at the residence was similar to a hose found at another power grid attack scene.
Read a press release on the arrest
here, obtained by KTHV in Little Rock.
The first attack happened on August 21 in Cabot, when someone cut a shackle tying down a 500,000-volt power line operated by Entergy, the main power provider for most of Arkansas. The line was run over by a passing train after falling onto a railroad track. On September 29, someone set fire to an Entergy substation in Scott. Then on October 6, someone cut two power poles near Jacksonville, causing a 115,000-volt line to fall down.
When sheriff's deputies responded to the explosion complaint and found the hose that looked a lot like what was found in Cabot, they called in the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force. Federal investigators then learned that the tractor used to knock down the lines in Jacksonville had been reported stolen from a location near Woodling's house. Woodling was arrested the next day.
Woodling is due to appear before a judge on Tuesday. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted. However, he could get as little as 10 months under sentencing guidelines. Given how much damage this could have done, hopefully there's a way to put him behind bars for longer. After all, if this isn't an act of domestic terrorism, what is?