Justice Dept Official Arrested for Running Bogus Masonic Police Force

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported that an aide to the California attorney general and two accomplices were arrested Wednesday for setting up a fictitious masonic police department they claimed was thousands of years old.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — An aide to the California attorney general and two accomplices were arrested Wednesday for setting up a fictitious masonic police department they claimed was thousands of years old, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.

California Department of Justice's deputy community affairs chief Brandon Kiel, Tonette Hayes and David Henry were accused of impersonating officers from the Masonic Fraternal Police Department, a rogue police force they said was staffed by offspring of the Knights Templar, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Police chiefs in California began receiving emails from the MFPD in January, with requests for meetings. But when such a meeting was granted, the members of the fake police department failed to prove their jurisdiction or explain their goals.

The LA Sheriff's Department then conducted an investigation together with other police agencies that removed any remaining doubts about the MFPD's legitimacy, the LA Times said. Police also found weapons, uniforms, and fake badges at the rogue department's property.

The MFPD's website says the organization has almost 7,000 grand lodges in 33 states, and is 3,000 years old. It allegedly goes back to the secretive military order that existed in Western Europe in the Middle Ages.