FBI offers $25,000 reward to help solve eco-terror arson case
San Diego — For the first time in nearly 14 years since the costliest eco-terrorism arson in U.S. history, the FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 in hopes of learning who set a San Diego housing project ablaze.
No one was injured in the 2003 incident, which caused an estimated $50 million in damage. The FBI will be advertising the reward on billboards and posters.
A loose-knit radical environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front, took responsibility for the fire — leaving hand-painted messages on bed sheets at the scene and claiming involvement on its website. But the individuals behind the crime have never been identified.
At 3 a.m. on Aug. 1, 2003, a five-story residential complex, framed and still under construction, was set ablaze. The arsonists left a message behind on sheets laid together on the ground: “If you build it — we will burn it. The E.L.F.s are mad.”
ELF, with members and cells nationwide, was known to target large developments in the name of protecting the land from urban sprawl.
kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com
Davis writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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