FBI arrests environmental activist in 2006 attempted arson

From the  latimes.com -

FBI arrests environmental activist in attempted arson
October 1, 2009 |  3:18 pm

The FBI has arrested an environmental activist in connection with the
attempted arson of unfinished town homes in Pasadena in 2006,
authorities said today.

Stephen James Murphy, 43, was arrested without incident Wednesday at
his home in Arlington, Texas, after being named in a criminal
complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court, said FBI spokeswoman
Laura Eimiller.

According to the complaint, the Pasadena Fire Department responded to
a construction site on Sept. 19, 2006, and found what it described as
a "crude incendiary device" made from cigarettes that had failed to
ignite.

Authorities said DNA found on the cigarettes matched Murphy's DNA,
which was in a state Department of Justice database stemming from a
previous arrest in California.

The following day workers at the site could not start a tractor, where
a note had been written in permanent marker that read "ANOTHER TRACTOR
DECOMMISSIONED BY THE E.L.F," federal officials said. Investigators
found that someone had tampered with the tractor's ignition system.

Federal and local investigators theorized that E.L.F. was shorthand
for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group that has
used vandalism and violence, included arson, to further its cause. FBI
officials say the attacks, which have occurred nationwide, have led to
millions of dollars in property damage.

A federal judge in Texas today denied bail for Murphy and ordered him
transferred to Los Angeles to face charges in connection with the
case.