Members of a militia group called Veterans On Patrol have spent recent weeks conducting "operations" in Spokane — searching the streets near homeless shelters looking for people they think are victims or perpetrators of human trafficking.
The group has been distributing fliers to homeless people with a phone number and instructions to call Veterans On Patrol instead of the police if they suspect trafficking is occurring.
"A consequence absent of law enforcement will be provided to the predator(s) and a solution absent of CPS [Child Protective Services] will be provided to the child victims," the fliers say.
In an alert sent to Spokane homeless service providers last month, the Western States Center, a civil rights organization that monitors extremism, described Veterans On Patrol as an anti-government "paramilitary organization" and a "conspiracy-fueled bigoted organization that openly aligns itself with white nationalists."
The group has since visited several homeless shelters in Spokane — in one instance prompting staff to call Crime Check and put their building on lockdown.
"We have had several calls from community organizations about their presence at various locations, handing out fliers and asking questions about trafficking," says Julie Humphreys, a spokesperson for the Spokane Police Department. "We do not have evidence of any criminal activity by the group."
Veterans On Patrol is based in Arizona. Michael "Lewis Arthur" Meyer, the leader of the group, arrived in Washington earlier this year and has been attempting to establish a base of operations in the Inland Northwest.
In an interview with the Inlander, Arthur, as he prefers to go by, denies that Veterans On Patrol is a militia. But he does use the word when referring to other groups he says they are working with — namely the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and "One Percenters," a broad term he uses to refer to various motorcycle gangs.
The Anti-Defamation League describes the Proud Boys, which played a major role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as a "right-wing extremist group with a violent agenda," and the Three Percenters as a "major part of the broader anti-government militia movement."
The Spokane Proud Boys are being "reassembled under a gentleman named .50 Cal," Arthur says.
The claim is hard to verify, but Veterans On Patrol does have a well-documented history of collaborating with individual Proud Boys, says Freddy Cruz, a researcher with the Western States Center who has monitored Veterans On Patrol for years.
Arthur says Veterans On Patrol is working with the Proud Boys and other local militias to establish the "Washington State Coalition for Children," which will conduct operations in the Inland Northwest and operate a hotline people can call to receive a response without involving law enforcement.
"Spokane is an ideal central location," Arthur says.
GOING VIRAL
Arthur founded Veterans On Patrol in 2015. He is not a veteran.The group started with the stated goal of veteran suicide prevention, but later evolved to focus on immigration and what its members see as preventing child trafficking, Cruz says.
In 2018, Arthur discovered an abandoned homeless camp in Tucson, Arizona, that he believed was part of a massive sex trafficking network. Police didn't find any evidence to support this, but that didn't stop Arthur's story — which seized on QAnon-style conspiracy narratives about an elite cabal of satan-worshiping pedophiles — from going viral.
Arthur says he isn't a QAnon adherent, but he does espouse related conspiracies involving chemtrails and satanic pedophiles who supposedly harvest adrenochrome from children's blood. He has also accused various law enforcement agencies and nonprofits of aiding traffickers.
Arthur's viral "discovery" drew a wave of recruits and donations to Veterans On Patrol. Volunteers from across the country traveled to Arizona to join the group as they trained with firearms in the desert and conducted operations seeking to intercept people they suspected were traffickers and victims at the U.S. border.
"We've seen the organization engage in a number of questionable activities that should get the attention of law enforcement," Cruz says.
In Arizona, Veterans On Patrol members have harassed aid workers, chased people through the desert and physically detained migrants, Cruz says. The operations were influential.
"Individuals started copying and mimicking a lot of their procedures," Cruz says. "Over the years, we've just seen other groups sort of take on a lot of the work that VOP established."
The group's activities at the border have quieted in recent years. Arthur has a warrant out in Arizona after skipping out on his sentencing for destroying humanitarian water stations set up for migrants, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
Arthur's second-in-command is Shawna Martin, who goes by Butterfly.
Martin is based in the Inland Northwest, and frequently travels back and forth to Arizona to help Veterans On Patrol operations, Cruz says. She is associated with the Panhandle Patriots motorcycle club in Idaho.
Arthur and Martin have a large network of followers who are willing to donate money and let them use their homes as safe houses, Cruz says.
"Human trafficking is a real issue," Cruz says. "Not only are they distracting from the issue, they're also diverting resources that can be used to actually help."
Humphreys, with Spokane police, says people with knowledge or concern about trafficking are encouraged to call law enforcement.
FAILED BASE OF OPERATIONS
In February this year, Arthur appeared in Washtucna — a small town of about 200 people an hour-and-a-half southwest of Spokane.Arthur told Washtucna's Town Council that a local property owner had agreed to let his group establish a compound to be used as a base to conduct anti-trafficking operations across the Inland Northwest, according to reporting from Dominick Bonny, an independent journalist.
"You'll see guys with tactical equipment," Arthur said in a video of the Town Council meeting. "They'll load up with me to go to locations where children have been trafficked to in various parts of the Northwest sector of the United States."
The group abandoned the plan shortly after the meeting, due to backlash from residents.
Dale Wagner, the sheriff of Adams County, wrote on Facebook in early March that he had resolved the situation with the property owner.
"The individuals have apparently gone to Spokane as far as we are aware," Wagner wrote. "If they or others come, we need to address it in a similar fashion."
Arthur arrived in Spokane shortly after. He and his wife are staying in the backyard of someone who has a leadership position in Spokane's neighborhood council system and knows Arthur through mutual associates. Reached by phone, the person said they support Arthur's cause, but they're worried about publicly associating with him and didn't want to comment on the record.
LOCAL GROUPS
Veterans On Patrol has approached a number of local organizations in an attempt to work with them, including Helping Captives, a Christian anti-trafficking organization based in Spokane Valley that recently announced plans to convert the Deja Vu strip club into its headquarters.Helping Captives CEO Caleb Altmeyer says Arthur showed up at his office and told him he was tracking kids from the border. Altmeyer says he doesn't know much about Arthur's organization but gave Arthur a stack of Helping Captives business cards to distribute in case it was helpful.
"There's no official partnership or anything," Altmeyer says.
Veterans On Patrol also visited Crosswalk, an emergency shelter for runaway and homeless youth in downtown Spokane that is run by Volunteers of America.
Fawn Schott, the CEO of VOA Eastern Washington, says several Veterans On Patrol members entered the building in late March with doughnuts and dropped off pamphlets.
"My staff did a fantastic job," Schott says. "They were concerned about it and called Crime Check immediately."
After doing more research on the group and learning that Crosswalk was on the list of organizations being targeted, Schott says staff put the building on lockdown — not allowing any visitors to enter.
Staff are still on high alert, Schott says.
"We have to be extra cautious," Schott says. "They're creating a false narrative that's not even true and taking resources away from young people that need this real support."
GUNS OUT
Recent photos taken in Spokane show Arthur and his wife with at least two men who appear to be associated with Veterans On Patrol. He says he's recruited several others to join the organization while in Spokane."They'll try to prey on vulnerable communities, they'll try to recruit people that are down on their luck," says Cruz, with the Western States Center.
Arthur says he plans to leave Spokane for Idaho soon (he won't say exactly where) to establish a base. He says Martin and the new recruits will stay in Spokane to continue helping with the Washington State Coalition for Children's trafficking hotline.
"It'll grow," Arthur says. "This will be our central hub, as long as we continue to be welcome here."
The recent Veterans On Patrol work in Spokane was promoted as "Operation Limp Pimp" in the group's Telegram channel, which has nearly 7,000 members. One message authorized a "full kit" (meaning body armor and guns) for the operation.
Arthur says a "full kit" authorization means volunteers are allowed to "go into the community with their ARs, with their plate carriers, with spare mags ... basically like they're going onto a battlefield for war. So when we authorize that, they're allowed to bring out their toys."
But Arthur says volunteers chose not to bring guns for Operation Limp Pimp. Photos posted on Telegram appear to confirm this.
"That was unique, we gave them the opportunity, but [they didn't]," Arthur says.
When asked what will happen if his coalition finds someone they think is a trafficker, Arthur says his only goal is rescuing children, and that he doesn't hurt people.
"I'm going to hand those guys over to a different coalition," Arthur says. "That coalition is there to deal with the community trash."
Arthur declines to say what the other coalition is called, or explain what kind of violence that group might dole out.
"You'll never hear a name for it, you'll never hear anyone say they're on it," Arthur says.
VIGILANTE INVESTIGATION
On Monday, April 1, the group's new trafficking hotline received its first call. The caller said he heard a woman's screams coming from an apartment building in Spokane's West Central neighborhood."I feel like there's some weird f—ing shit going on here, some trafficking of children," the caller said in a recording posted on Telegram.
"I'll be there to check it out," Arthur replied. "Don't come out or do anything or let people know you called us."
Fifteen minutes later, Arthur was standing in the second-floor stairwell of the apartment building, dressed in military-style camo. He tried knocking on the door where screaming had been reported, but he didn't get an answer. He started livestreaming on YouTube after learning that someone called the cops before he arrived.
"I told you guys, don't call the cops, call the number on the flier," Arthur says in the video.
The man who called the hotline, at one point in the video referred to as Devin, is wandering around outside, yelling aggressively about human trafficking and trying to round up neighbors. The whole thing is causing a scene and provoking confrontations with other residents.
At several points in the video, Arthur acknowledges that Devin appears to be "out of his mind" on drugs. He remembers meeting Devin and handing him a flier with the hotline number during Operation Limp Pimp the night before.
Someone eventually emerges from the apartment where screaming was reported and invites Arthur to search the unit. Arthur goes inside and doesn't find anything out of the ordinary. No woman. No screaming. No one else in the unit.
As Arthur prepares to leave, a different neighbor angrily confronts him about the way he approached her when he first arrived, before he started recording.
"You were aggressive," the neighbor says.
"That's because someone called and said a woman was screaming being raped and murdered," Arthur says. "What am I supposed to do? Come in here and be calm? I was pretty calm."
The neighbor also confronts Devin, who is still yelling aggressively.
"The screaming in your head was the meth in your veins," she says.
Police eventually arrive and escort Devin away in handcuffs.
One resident asks police to trespass Arthur from the property, but he leaves voluntarily. Just before doing so, he baselessly speculates that a different neighbor he interrogated earlier is likely a pedophile.
"I know when I'm dealing with pedophiles," Arthur tells one resident. "So if you see boys going in there, he likes little boys."
Arthur says the incident was just the first test of the hotline.
"That was a learning curve for us," Arthur says.
RECRUITING
Within a week, Arthur and his wife are at the Greyhound bus station off First Avenue. It's a sunny Sunday morning, and Arthur has posters with photos of migrant children that he and other Veterans On Patrol members previously encountered at the southern border. He thinks the children are somewhere in Washington."When children cross, they'll tell you the states that they're generally going to," Arthur says.
As passengers depart a bus, Arthur walks up to each one, showing them the photos and asking if they've seen the children. They haven't. He gives them a card and tells them to call if they see the kids.
"We're trying to verify their safety," Arthur says. "We're recruiting any of the men that want to help us look for these kids."
Arthur gives an associate's contact info to one woman who says she's homeless and hungry. He strikes up a conversation with a man named Robert, who says he's a veteran of the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
"I got PTSD," Robert says. "A lot of us got a raw deal. I got a bag full of medication."
Robert is homeless and making his way to Seattle. Arthur offers to help him find a place to stay in Spokane, and Robert says he'll take him up on the offer. They exchange numbers.
Later, Arthur says he hopes Robert will stay and help the Coalition's search for kids in Spokane.
"He's someone that can move through the streets that'll have clear eyes... He's from the drug addict past life. He has no purpose, and that in itself is going to be helpful for the homeless," Arthur says. "I don't think he's done as much evil as I have, and God loves me and helps me, so he's going to be great." ♦
