"These defendants from across the country allegedly conspired on the internet to intimidate journalists and activists with whom they disagreed", Assistant US Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in the release.
According to the criminal complaint filed in US federal court in Washington, the defendants conspired via an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate, the release said. The group targeted black, Hispanic and Jewish reporters and activists, the release added.
Two of the defendants - Cameron Brandon Shea in the state of Washington and Kaleb Cole in Texas - created posters with Nazi symbols, masked figures, guns, and Molotov cocktails for the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen group, the release also said.
The material was mailed to journalists in at least four states, as well as two members of the Anti-Defamation League, according to the release.
