(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A Virginia militia has publicly expelled a member who was encouraging others to commit illegal acts, suggesting that the provocateur might have been working for the federal government in a plot to entrap the group.
Documentarian Ford Fischer first reported the strange series of events, which began when Russell Richardson Vane IV first made contact with the “Virginia Kekoas” militia in April 2022.
INVESTIGATIVE VIDEO THREAD: The Virginia Kekoas, a pro-gun prepper militia based in Eastern Virginia and formerly affiliated with the Boogaloo movement, tells News2Share that they recently kicked out a member they believe may have been plotting an explosives-related entrapment… pic.twitter.com/Ubo3aXhVyk
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) April 1, 2024
According to the Kekoas leaders, Vane IV told them he was working for the CIA. While the leaders had reservations about Vane IV, they allowed him to enter one of their group chats because they thought he might have advanced knowledge of world-altering events.
But within two weeks of entering the chat, Vane IV allegedly asked the Kekoas about a “group fund,” as well as about starting his own chapter of the Kekoas. Vane IV was told that no fund exists and members pay their own way. Such a fund would likely be illegal.
Despite Vane IV’s suspicious behavior, the Kekoas made him a member of the militia last August. Soon thereafter, Vane IV again proposed illegal behavior, this time offering other members instructions for how to build bombs.
In February, Vane IV again promoted the idea of collecting Hydrogen Peroxide in a group chat with the Kekoas and other militias. He was then accused of being a provacatuer, with other members calling his posts “fed plot shit for real.”
“I told him that this was not allowed,” said one of the group’s leaders, who goes by the nickname “ICE.”
“You need to knock it off, don’t do it again. If you do, we will have to do something, up to releasing you.”
But that still didn’t stop Vane IV, who then asked the Kekoas whether they had plans if the President were to be assassinated.
To top it off, Vane IV allegedly gave another Kekoas leader named “Sasquatch” a batch of purported Defense Intelligence Agency documents about using homemade explosives.
“It freaked me the hell out … Inside of it, it’s literally showing how to use cellulose, how to get cellulose [Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound used in explosives], the applications for it—the whole nine yards,” Sasquatch told Fischer.
“The fact that he’s handing me this stuff … This is the one that scared me the most: Everyone saw that Air Force guy who leaked classified maps on Discord, and the maps looked exactly like this,” he added, referring to the classified Pentagon records allegedly leaked by Air Force intelligence officer Jack Teixeira.
If all that weren’t enough, Vane IV allegedly told the Kekoas that he had a contact in the Russian Embassy could pay “up to $50,000 a month to unify all militias in Virginia.”
The Kekoas have issued a statement on the matter.
“We The Virginia Kekoas are a militia type emergency preparedness group. We do not condone terrorist activity, nor do we condone violence towards any member of the government, former or current,” the group said.
“Furthermore, The Virginia Kekoas would never partner, ally or whatever with any foreign government.”
Official Kekoas Statment Regarding the release of the News2share story. pic.twitter.com/xs2xUnikB1
— The Virginia Kekoas (@VirginiaKekoas_) April 1, 2024
After Fischer published his story, the bizarre story became even stranger. On Wednesday, an obituary for Vane IV appeared online, claiming he had died on March 11, which would have been the day after he was formally kicked out of the Kekoas.
However, Fischer investigated further, and found that the obituary was likely fake.
“The obituary claims that memorial services were held at the PW Park on March 20th, and his ashes were placed near Chopawamsic Creek (behind Quantico),” Fischer noted.
“A PW Park Ranger by phone confirmed no such ceremony occurred, although he couldn’t rule out a family hiking to place ashes.”
Fischer’s reporting also prompted others to investigate the situation, turning up more suspicious evidence pointing to Vane IV possibly being an agent/informant-provocateur. Perhaps most notably, journalist Christina Urso, who’s making a documentary on the Whitmer kidnap plot, found that Vane IV’s father is a counterterrorism operator.
A biography for the father, Russ Vane III, states that he works for DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is infamously known for pressuring social media companies to censor content amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and ahead of the 2020 election.
Watch Urso’s video about the apparent provocateur here:
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
