One of the three remaining fugitives in a string of U.S. fires set by environmental radicals surrendered to authorities Thursday after spending years hiding in Canada.
The U.S. attorney's office in Portland, Oregon, said Rebecca Jeanette Rubin, 39, turned herself in to the FBI at the Peace Arch crossing on the border between B.C. and Washington state.
Rumours that Rubin, a Canadian, was hiding in British Columbia have circulated for years.
She was part of a cell of the Earth Liberation Front known as The Family, authorities said. She was sought on charges that she took part in setting fires at a Vail ski resort in Colorado, at a timber company office in Oregon and at federal wild horse corrals in Oregon and California.
Authorities have said the Earth Liberation Front cell was responsible for about 20 arsons around the western U.S. that did $40 million in damage. Other targets included a horse slaughterhouse and U.S. Forest Service ranger stations, research facilities and an SUV dealership, all in Oregon.
Ten people pleaded guilty in 2007 to conspiracy and arson and were sentenced to prison.
The group disbanded in 2001, but a federal taskforce known as Operation Backfire turned an informant and broke open the cell in 2005. Rubin will be sent to Oregon for trial.
