{"id":132799,"date":"2026-01-14T05:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/132799\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T05:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:45:08","slug":"ex-navy-seal-convicted-in-san-diego-no-kings-protest-attack-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/132799\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Navy SEAL convicted in San Diego &#8216;No Kings&#8217; protest attack plot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0.NK11.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"388\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0.NK11.jpg\" alt=\"Protesters stand on steps bearing signs.\" class=\"wp-image-323623\"  \/><\/a>Protesters take part in the downtown San Diego \u201cNo Kings\u201d march on June 14, 2025. (Photo by Adrian Childress\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n<p>A former U.S. Navy SEAL who prosecutors say intended to travel to San Diego to launch fireworks at law enforcement officers during \u201cNo Kings Day\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofsandiego.com\/politics\/2025\/06\/14\/san-diego-police-praise-60000-downtown-no-kings-protests\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">protests last summer<\/a> was convicted by a federal jury in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Gregory Vandenberg purchased six mortar fireworks and 72 M-150 firecrackers with the intent of throwing them at officers during the protests scheduled for June 14, 2025, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-nm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors say Vandenberg was traveling from El Paso to San Diego, but stopped at a New Mexico travel center on June 12 to purchase the fireworks.<\/p>\n<p>While at the center, Vandenberg \u201casked detailed questions about the amount of gunpowder in the fireworks, their explosive impact, and their ability to harm others,\u201d according to prosecutors, who said Vandenberg also encouraged a store clerk to join him so they could throw the fireworks at law enforcement officials together in California.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVandenberg emphasized that he was not interested in the color or display of the fireworks \u2014 only in their ability to cause explosions and harm law enforcement,\u201d the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n<p>Travel center employees contacted police and provided Vandenberg\u2019s license plate number. He was arrested in Tucson, Arizona the following morning.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors allege that a search of his vehicle turned up the fireworks and clothing that displayed \u201cantisemitic, anti-Israel, and extremist symbols \u2014 including a t-shirt with an image of the Al-Qaeda flag and a t-shirt calling for the destruction of Judea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office also alleged that \u201cviolent and extremist content\u201d was discovered following a search of his phone, in which he expressed his ire toward the U.S. government.<\/p>\n<p>Vandenberg was found guilty Friday of transportation of explosives with intent to kill, injure or intimidate and attempted transportation of prohibited fireworks into California.<\/p>\n<p>He faces up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters take part in the downtown San Diego \u201cNo Kings\u201d march on June 14, 2025. (Photo by Adrian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5685,67998,67999,67345,7152,74,76,75,68000],"class_list":["post-132799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-convicted","tag-el-paso","tag-firecrackers","tag-gregory-vandenberg","tag-no-kings-day","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-u-s-navy-seal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}