Authorities in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho arrested 31 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front near a Pride event over the weekend. A tipster had reported seeing people loading up into a U-Haul like “a little army” at a hotel parking lot near the event.

“I will tell you what, it appeared to be very similar to an operations plan that a police or military group would put together for…an event,” Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said Saturday. “There was at least one smoke grenade, there was multiple shields — they were all wearing hats that had plastic inside them. Shin guards, shields. Things of that nature.”

Police eventually pulled over the rental truck, arresting the Patriot Front members on the side of the road. They were all charged with conspiracy to riot. They were set to be arraigned Monday.

Among the 31 arrested was the group’s leader, 23-year-old Thomas Ryan Rousseau of Grapevine, Texas. Patriot Front formed in the wake of the the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia back in 2017.

Only one of the Patriot Front members arrested near the Pride event is actually from Idaho. In addition to Idaho and Texas, those arrested came from Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Virginia, and Arkansas. On Sunday, LGBTQ advocates said polarization and a fraught political climate are putting their community increasingly at risk.

“We have been through so much, so much… harassment, and attempts to intimidate on the psychological level,” Jessica Mahuron of the North Idaho Pride Alliance, which organized the event, told KREM-TV.

Over the weekend, White added he was aware of “some of the threats that were happening online.”

“There were people walking around the event with long guns and handguns and bear spray and all kinds of things like that. None of that is illegal in Idaho,” White said. “It’s only to the point when they start using it that we grow really concerned.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.