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Police find weapons and anti-government symbols in Alabama home after threats to ICE

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Cite

Crozier, H. (2026, October 8). Police find weapons and anti-government symbols in Alabama home after threats to ICE. Washington Examiner. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4758931/three-arrested-alabama-threats-ice-immigration-enforcement/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Washington Examiner · collected 2026-10-08 · by Hudson Crozier

Quick Summary

Law enforcement in Alabama arrested 18-year-old Levi Belcher and two roommates after discovering weapons and anti-government symbols in a Huntsville apartment. The search revealed a rifle marked with “anti-fascist” writings and the space was covered in similar extremist messages. Federal indictments charged Belcher with possessing unregistered rifles and making threatening communications, targeting immigration agents specifically. These arrests followed investigations into social media threats made by Belcher over several months starting from December 2025.
Written by AI on 2026-10-08, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

In December 2025, 18-year-old Levi Belcher from Tennessee made threats against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on social media, which were reported by a witness. After being listed as missing in January 2026, law enforcement searched an apartment in Huntsville, Alabama, on September 10, finding it filled with anti-government symbols and writings, including a rifle marked "anti fascist." Belcher was arrested along with two roommates, Tadashi Erekson and Anthony Slota, who were charged with possessing unregistered rifles. Belcher was additionally charged with threatening communications. The FBI alleged that the suspects had planned to follow law enforcement officers around as a form of community protection but this behavior was interpreted by authorities as potential terrorism. This case highlights tensions between left-wing political activism and perceived threats to national security under President Donald Trump's administration, which viewed such activities as significant concerns.

Written for “Extremist Threats InvestigationAlabama” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Extremist Threats InvestigationAlabama
Politics · 2 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans right and hedges 19% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
CBC News
⚖️ Centre further left than this Hedges 4 of 61 claims Outlet record 74/100
“The articles describe different incidents involving separate individuals and locations.”
Washington Examiner
Hedges 3 of 33 claims Outlet record 70/100
New York Post
Hedges 2 of 18 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles describe different events involving distinct individuals and incidents.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
26
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
19%
5 of 26 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
70/100
Washington Examiner's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
2
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-08 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Washington Examiner · 3927 article(s) · 7 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 7 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Hudson Crozier
30 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The pair advertised their fake services to a sheriff’s deputy, tried to approach a Navy base in Georgia, and may have recruited an unnamed Pentagon employee, the Department of Justice claimed.
🔮 Leftists convicted in a 2023 vandalism attack said Thursday they will return to jail rather than testify in a federal grand jury investigation in New Hampshire.
🔮 A May 2025 French parliamentary investigation labeled the club a “student branch of the Muslim Brotherhood,” the decades-old Islamic fundamentalist movement that created Hamas and which maintains political connections worldwide, according to a summary by the American think tank Middle East Forum.
🔮 The now-deleted post invited viewers to join an Oct. 7 City Hall protest against Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for supposedly failing the pro-Palestinian cause, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
🔮 Slota told officials that “he and Belcher would ‘cop watch’ meaning they would follow law enforcement, such as [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and [Huntsville Police Department], around as a means of protecting the community,” an FBI counterterrorism agent wrote.
🔮 The speaker expressed hope that they could “put a complete stop to major aspects, if not the entire border wall happening here.”
🔮 But many in the place I grew up would recoil at a statement like that.
🔮 A witness later reported the suspect to authorities over alleged December 2025 posts on Threads saying Belcher would “gun down an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agent on sight” and showing a firearm.
🔮 The rapid growth of America’s Muslim population is renewing fears that Sharia could undermine American values, including in Texas, where Republicans are strategizing on how to restrict Islamic political influence.
🔮 “I am sensitive to any situation that would unduly expose our colleagues to such risks.”
Also by Hudson Crozier
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 30 articles by Hudson Crozier →

Topics

Alabama Belcher FBI Huntsville Instagram

Subjects

Belcher PERSON · 12× FBI ORG · 8× Alabama GPE · 5× Huntsville GPE · 3× Instagram ORG · 2× Threads ORG · 2× Levi Belcher PERSON · 1× Tadashi Erekson PERSON · 1× Tennessee GPE · 1× the Washington Examiner’s ORG · 1×

Narrative

Troubled teenager found community in anarchism, documents say Belcher, who went by “Cici” on Instagram, previously interacted with law enforcement as a minor due to open-source internet searches about “improvised devices” and a weapon-building guide called the Anarchist Cookbook, the FBI’s charging documents said.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-08
🔮 A witness later reported the suspect to authorities over alleged December 2025 posts on Threads saying Belcher would “gun down an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agent on sight” and showing a firearm.
2026-10-08 · Washington Examiner
Police find weapons and anti-government symbols in Alabama home after threats to ICE · assertive framing

Claims (26 extracted, 5 hedged)

A runaway teenager’s string of police encounters and alleged threats to kill immigration agents led to three arrests in Alabama last month, court records show. asserted
records → kill → Alabama
Law enforcement tracked 18-year-old Levi Belcher of Tennessee after noticing threats on social media in December 2025, and after being reported missing by the suspect’s father the following month, the FBI alleged in criminal complaints. asserted
FBI → track → complaints
Investigations ultimately led Alabama police to search a Huntsville apartment on Sept. 10 to find it “littered with anti-government writings,” plus a rifle with “anti fascist” written on it, according to the charging documents. uncertain
it → lead → documents
Federal grand jury indictments in October charged Belcher and two roommates from the Huntsville residence with possessing unregistered rifles, while Belcher was also charged with threatening communications. asserted
Belcher → charge → communications
Belcher’s legal team did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment. asserted
team → respond → comment
Court records did not list attorneys for the roommates, Tadashi Erekson and Anthony Slota. asserted
records → list → roommates
The arrests came amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on what he considers an overlooked problem of left-wing political violence. asserted
he → come → violence
Police searched the Alabama apartment just one year after conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting, a suspected political assassination that further invigorated Trump’s efforts. asserted
that → search → efforts
Troubled teenager found community in anarchism, documents say Belcher, who went by “Cici” on Instagram, previously interacted with law enforcement as a minor due to open-source internet searches about “improvised devices” and a weapon-building guide called the Anarchist Cookbook, the FBI’s charging documents said. asserted
documents → find → devices
A federal office in Nashville already had a safety bulletin on Belcher by August 2026 due to those incidents. asserted
office → have → incidents
After escaping from home, Madison County officers arrested Belcher in April 2025 for allegedly driving a vehicle stolen from the suspect’s father. uncertain
officers → escape → father
The FBI mentioned another “interaction with law enforcement” in Alabama in September 2025, but provided no details. asserted
FBI → mention → details
A witness later reported the suspect to authorities over alleged December 2025 posts on Threads saying Belcher would “gun down an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agent on sight” and showing a firearm. asserted
Belcher → report → firearm
Belcher’s suspected Threads account posted in July that its user was a “white [transgender] woman.” asserted
user → suspect → July
An Instagram account the FBI connected to Belcher contains posts about the owner previously being in jail, tracking immigration agents around the area, and visiting a tabling event with the anarchist group Food Not Bombs Huntsville. asserted
owner → connect → group
The tabling post showed footage of pamphlets with phrases such as “a world without police.” asserted
post → table → police
“What would john brown do?” reads the account’s profile, naming the 1800s slave revolt leader who has become a symbol for modern-day leftists. asserted
who → do → leftists
Just before the September home search, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted surveillance in Decatur, Alabama, while trying to locate Belcher’s vehicle, case documents say. asserted
documents → conduct → vehicle
A driver then dropped off Belcher and Slota in body armor as they carried guns and “military style backpacks,” the FBI wrote. asserted
FBI → drop → guns
The pair entered Belcher’s vehicle and drove away until ATF and local police stopped them, according to the records. uncertain
ATF → enter → records
The FBI described a “probable cause search” of the vehicle that found dozens of gun magazines “with various writings on them to include ‘I hate the police’, ‘Are we free yet’, and other anti-government sentiments.” asserted
we → describe → police
Concerns over the findings led police to obtain a warrant to search the Huntsville apartment. asserted
Concerns → lead → apartment
Erekson owned the apartment where the trio lived and “shared extreme contempt towards law enforcement,” according to the FBI. uncertain
trio → own → FBI
He also allegedly tried to reach for a concealed pistol as police arrested him at the residence. uncertain
police → try → residence
The FBI noted “indications of anarchist and antifascist ideology” throughout the home. asserted
FBI → note → home
Among a pile of memorabilia shown in photos was a sign saying, “Fred Hampton would know how to fix these dirty pigs” — referencing a Black Panther activist killed in a 1969 police raid. asserted
Hampton → show → raid
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