The FBI arrested two members of the radical New Black Panther party and charged them with federal firearms violations when they were caught buying explosives to use during the upcoming demonstrations in Ferguson, MO after the grand jury decision, which is expected shortly.

The two men arrested are the same two men under indictment for purchasing handguns under false pretenses.

Reuters:

Against this backdrop of heightened tensions, according to a law enforcement source, two men described as reputed members of a militant group called the New Black Panther Party, were arrested in the St. Louis area in an FBI sting operation.

As initially reported by CBS News, the men were suspected of acquiring explosives for pipe bombs that they planned to set off during protests in Ferguson, according to the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

The official said the two men are the same pair named in a newly unsealed federal indictment returned on Nov. 19 charging Brandon Orlando Baldwin and Olajuwon Davis with purchasing two pistols from a firearms dealer under false pretenses.

Both men were arraigned on Friday in federal court, the law enforcement source said.

The FBI and other federal agencies were reported to have stepped up their presence in the St. Louis area in recent days in anticipation of renewed protests after the grand jury's decision in the Brown case is made known.

An FBI official in St. Louis declined to comment except to say that the two men named in the indictment had been arrested. Officials from the U.S. Attorney's Office for eastern Missouri were not immediately available for comment.

The New Black Panthers came to prominence in 2009, when Attorney General Eric Holder refused to prosecute members of the group for intimidating voters in Philadelphia.

The group recently put a $5,000 bounty on the head of Officer Darren Wilson, the policeman who shot Michael Brown last August.  They also placed a $1,000 bounty on members of his family.  They claim they want only information on Wilson's whereabouts, but the practical effect of advertising where Wilson is staying would be to give him a death sentence.

It must be nice to have an ally in the attorney general.  The group placed another bounty on the head of George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin's shooter, in 2012.  One can imagine what the AG's reaction would be if a white supremecist group put a bounty on black police officer's head.