Former employees of the Florida Department of Corrections plotting to kill a former inmate last year were members of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, according to authorities.
The FBI arrested the three men -- Thomas Jordan Driver, 25, Charles Thomas Newcomb, 42, and David Elliot Moran, 47 -- near Gainesville, March 31, 2015. Prosecutors charged them with one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Newcomb was the KKK chapter's "Exalted Cyclops" or leader.
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There were five active KKK groups in Florida last year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's report on hate and extremism released Wednesday. There was a reported increase nationwide from 74 KKK groups in 2014 to 190 in 2015.
Aside from the Traditionalist American Knights of the KKK, in Highland City, there were two groups of the Kuklos Knights of the KKK in Hudson and Cape Coral. The Original Knight Riders Knights of the KKK and The Loyal White Knights of the KKK were also active in Florida.
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