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Last November, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reached out to a Wilkinson County, Georgia sheriff about an illegal gun investigation. In a probe, investigators discovered that Corey Griggers, a sheriff’s deputy in the county, was a member of an alleged white extremist group where he not only used racist language but also bragged about beating a black suspect in his custody. 

According to the Biloxi Sun Herald, the FBI claims that Griggers’ text messages to the group members also

included a plan to increase Black voter suppression in the state.

The FBI recovered a machine gun and 11 illegal firearms at his residence.

Griggers, who was also a former Marine, was a member of an alleged extremist group called “Shadow Moses,” also shortened as “ShadMo” the Biloxi Sun Herald reported. In recovered text messages to the group, he bragged about beating a Black suspect for a petty crime, allegedly writing, “I beat the (expletive) out of a (racial slur) Saturday. (Expletive) tried to steal (a gun magazine) from the local gun store. … Sheriff’s dept. said it looked like he fell.”

Investigators also discovered that Griggers, 28, had “intended to charge black people with felonies in order to keep them from voting,” which was evident in his text messages.

Calling it a “sign of beautiful things to come,” he allegedly admitted, “Also I’m going to charge them with whatever felonies I can to take away their ability to vote.”

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Prosecutors claimed in a statement that the since-fired Wilkinson County sheriff’s deputy “

expressed viewpoints consistent with racially motivated violent extremism, including the use of racial slurs, slurs against homosexuals and making frequent positive references to the Nazi holocaust,”

On Monday, Griggers pleaded guilty to the illegal possession of a firearm. Facing up to 10 years in prison for his unregistered weapons, his sentence hearing will begin in July.