A 26-year-old Kansas City man has pleaded guilty to federal charges after prosecutors say he built and detonated homemade explosive devices packed with steel BBs. Roberts was connected to an anti-government militia that discussed attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Missouri National Guard. He admitted to possessing unregistered destructive devices, capping a federal investigation into a group calling itself the Red Legs that has been active since November 2023.
According to KCTV, Roberts communicated with fellow Red Legs members through a private chat where the group discussed plans to commit violence against government members and property, identifying potential targets that included the National Guard and ICE. Members reportedly trained together by shooting firearms at local ranges as they prepared for confrontation with federal authorities.
Court documents show Roberts brought two duct-taped devices with apparent fuses to a meeting with someone he believed was a fellow extremist but who was actually an undercover officer in Richmond, Missouri, the station's report notes. Roberts described the devices as alcohol shooters filled with black powder and surrounded with steel BBs. A federal court affidavit detailed the test, in which Roberts detonated both devices at a rock quarry roughly 25 miles east of Kansas City, in the presence of an undercover FBI informant, according to News From The States.
FBI Lab Confirms the Devices Were Real Bombs
The FBI Laboratory Explosives Unit later identified the devices as improvised explosive devices, per the same account. Investigators determined Roberts had no destructive devices registered under the National Firearms Act, and federal officials charged him with possessing destructive devices as a result. Under 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) and § 5845(f) of the National Firearms Act, possessing an unregistered destructive device — a category that includes explosive or incendiary bombs and improvised black-powder devices — is a federal felony, according to the Department of Justice.
Federal officials say Roberts faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted. Federal prisoners are not eligible for parole, according to the Department of Justice. DOJ records show Roberts pleaded guilty.
A Nurse Allegedly Stole a License Plate Camera for the Cause
In early September, federal prosecutors in Kansas charged 31-year-old Jarred G. Gilliam of Kansas City, Kansas — an emergency department nurse at the University of Kansas Medical Center — with possessing destructive devices, identifying him as an alleged fellow Red Legs member who experimented with Molotov cocktails, according to the Justice Department.
The Red Legs discussed violent plans, potential targets and sabotage. Roberts reportedly liked the idea of dropping “cocktails” from drones.
The group's chosen name references a 19th-century Unionist guerrilla outfit that operated along the Kansas-Missouri border during the Bleeding Kansas and Civil War eras, a violent chapter the modern group appears to have drawn on for its identity.
It remains unclear whether other participants in the group's private chat will face additional federal charges as the investigation continues. Roberts's guilty plea, first reported by KCTV, closes one chapter in a case involving the group's online discussions and a quarry test.
