11 Members Of Fringe Group “Rise Of The Moors” Arrested Following 9 Hour Standoff, Heavily Armed

Authorities apprehended 11 members of a fringe group called Rise of the Moors following a nine-hour standoff with law enforcement.

The incident occurred on a Massachusetts highway on Saturday and involved hostage negotiators, the New York Post reported. The situation also shut down I-95 in both directions, local commuter train service, and caused shelter-in-place orders among two local communities north of Boston.

Luckily, no one was harmed during the incident. As of late Saturday morning, the shelter orders for both Reading and Wakefield were lifted.

“We have several armed persons accounted for at this scene on Rt 95. They are refusing to comply with orders to provide their information and put down their weapons,” the Massachusetts State Police said on Twitter at 5:37 a.m.

State troopers located the men in a breakdown lane on the side of the highway, refueling their cars around 1:30 a.m. They pulled over to assist them, Christopher Mason, a state police colonel, told reporters.

The men inside the vehicle were donned in military-style tactical gear, and some had long rifles. Others allegedly had pistols. More police were called to the scene to help the first responding officer when his requests for documentation weren’t met.

The men were apparently traveling from Rhode Island to Maine “for training.”

Police were able to arrest two men, but others ran into the woods, and some stayed inside their vehicles. Hostage negotiators worked to get both groups of suspects to surrender without causing more havoc.

“We were afraid so we got out with our arms,” one man claiming to be a member of Rise of the Moors, said in a YouTube video that is believed to have been recorded on the side of the highway. The man did not identify himself but was seen dressed in what appeared to be combat gear.

Police are still looking into the nature of the group.

“We’re not anti-government. We’re not anti-police. We’re not sovereign citizens. We’re not black identity extremists,” the man in the video said. “We haven’t violated any laws.”

The suspected claimed “to be from a group that does not recognize our laws,” the Wakefield Police Department said in a statement. “No threats were made, but these men should be considered armed and dangerous.”
Boston’s FBI division is “fully engaged” in the investigation, alongside state and local partners.

Before Saturday, Mason also told news outlets that he was not familiar with the fringe group, whose website describes them as “Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders.”

“Their self-professed leader wanted very much known their ideology is not anti-government,” Mason said. “Our investigation will provide us more insight into what their motivation, what their ideology is.”

The group’s website describes them as “Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders.”