Maine safety officials say they don't know where armed militia was headed

Scene of Saturday's nine-hour armed standoff on I-95 in Wakefield, Mass. (Mass State Police photo)

AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine's Department of Public Safety continues to monitor the arrests of 11 armed man following a standoff with Massachusetts State Police on Saturday in Wakefield, Mass.

The Maine Information and Analysis Center unit of the Maine Dept. of Safety is aware of the situation and monitoring it as it unfolds, according to Shannon Moss, public information officer for the department.

"At this time we still cannot confirm that these men were in fact heading to Maine," she told The Rochester Voice today. "Whether there is a connection or not is still being investigated by the MIAC."

The men said they belonged to a militia group called the Rise of the Moors and that prior to their arrest had said they were headed to "private land" in Maine for "training."

The nine-hour standoff began around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday when a police cruiser stopped to see if two parked vehicles off the northbound I-95 shoulder needed assistance.

The trooper saw they were filling up their vehicles with gas tanks and were heavily armed. When he asked them to show their gun licenses some fled into the woods.

The standoff ended through negotiation as a tightening perimeter of heavy armored police vehicles closed in on the two suspect vehicles.

Police soon learned that the men referred to themselves as a militia and claimed to be part of a group called "The Rise of The Moors," what they describe as a sovereign group that follows federal but not state laws.

The group said it was traveling from Rhode Island to Maine to conduct "training," on private land, but did not specify where in Maine.

None of the men who were dressed in military fatigues and body armor and were armed with long guns and pistols has a license to carry firearms, police said.

Those arrested are:

• 29-year-old Jahmal Tavon Sanders Latimer (also known as Jahmal Talib Abdullay Bey) of Providence, R.I.

• 27-year-old Alban El Curraugh of Bronx, N.Y.

• 29-year-old Aaron Lamont Johnson (also known as Tarrif Sharif Bey) of Detroit, Michigan

• 21-year-old Robert Rodriguez of Bronx, N.Y.

• 23-year-old Wilfredo Hernandez (also known as Will Musa) of Bronx, N.Y.

• 40-year-old Quinn Cumberlander of Pawtucket, R.I.

• 34-year-old Lamar Dow of Bronx, N.Y.

• 29-year-old Conrad Pierre of Baldwin, N.Y.

One of the suspects is 17 years old and two others refused to identify themselves.

Each of the 11 suspects is charged with:

• Unlawful possession of a firearm, eight counts;

• Unlawful possession of ammunition;

• Use of body armor in commission of a crime;

• Possession of a high capacity magazine;

• Improper storage of firearms in a vehicle; and

• Conspiracy to commit a crime.

Hernandez, Johnson, Dow and the juvenile are charged with furnishing a false name to police.

Massachusetts State Police and Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said more charges are possible following a search of the defendants' two vehicles.

So far, police have recovered eight weapons: three AR-15 rifles, two pistols, a bolt-action rifle, a shotgun, and a short-barrel rifle.

The 17-year-old is to be released to parental custody, while the other 10 are expected to remain held at Billerica (Mass.) House of Corrections on $100,000 cash bail. They are set to be arraigned on Tuesday in Malden (Mass.) District Court.