White supremacists were arresting trying to purchase illegal arms. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Two Virginia men are being charged with conspiracy to possess firearms with the hopes of using them against black churches and synagogues, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Robert C. Doyle and Ronald Beasley Chaney III were arrested trying to buy automatic weapons, explosives and a pistol from three undercover agents posing as illegal arms dealers, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit filed on Monday in a US District Court in Richmond.

According to the affidavit, the two men planned a meeting to discuss “shooting or bombing the occupants of black churches and Jewish synagogues, conducting acts of violence against persons of Jewish faith, and doing harm to a gun store owner in the state of Oklahoma.”

According to the authorities, the two men ascribed to a white supremacist offshoot of the Norse-mythology-based Asatru faith, which has a following across North America and in Europe.

Once the meeting was held, Doyle and Chaney met with an undercover agent about a month later to discuss purchasing illicit weapons. When the transaction was completed, Chaney was arrested on the spot and Doyle later that day.

The authorities also discovered 30 rounds of .45-caliber ammunition in a truck at Doyle’s home, according to the affidavit.

An associate of the two men, 30-year-old Charles D. Halderman, was accused of plotting to rob a jeweler to gather funds for purchasing lands and more arms for an “impending race war,” according to the report.