A Ripton traffic stop leads to Homeland Security

An unusual traffic stop in Ripton:

...a car pulled up with a lone male at the wheel. He was not giving his
name and it became apparent that the license plate was fake. The driver was
briefly taken into custody. The U.S. Forest Service brought in a search dog
trained to sniff out illegal drugs. When the dog got to the trunk, it let his
partner know that he had found something.

Finally, the man handed over a passport that police say checked out
valid. But it also brought a warning over the police radio to be careful around
him. Senior Game Warden Dale Whitlock explained, "When I ran it through
dispatch, it came back with multiple convictions of driver's license suspended.
And a caution. Sometimes dispatchers will issue a caution to us to use
care."

the car was suspicious enough, as well as its driver, to warrant further
attention. The feds were expected to run the man's name through Homeland
Security.

Even the law enforcement people here called this a very unusual day,
and we're not talking fish and wildlife violations.

WCAX did some digging:

Our check of the Internet shows the man belongs to a group called the
Embassy of Heaven, an elusive church group based in Oregon that
renounces government, issues its own license plates, has been raided for
non-payment of taxes and, according to the Anti-Defamation League, has ties to
anti-government militias.