Two brothers, cousin arrested in Illinois on charges stemming from US Capitol breach

Three Illinois men were arrested Wednesday on federal charges alleging they illegally entered the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot more than a year ago.

Anthony Carollo, 23, his brother, Jeremiah Carollo, 45, and their cousin, Cody Vollan, 31, were all charged with misdemeanor counts of unlawfully entering a restricted government building and disorderly conduct on U.S. Capitol grounds.

Anthony Carollo and Vollan were arrested in the Lockport area and appeared before a magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in Chicago on Wednesday afternoon, where they were ordered released on their own recognizance.

Jeremiah Carollo, who lives in downstate Glen Carbon, had an initial court appearance in the Southern District of Illinois, records show. Details of that hearing had not yet been docketed Wednesday afternoon.

Lawyers for the three were not immediately available.

A criminal complaint filed Wednesday included photos of the three men allegedly standing amid the mob outside the Capitol and later entering through a door, filing past a man in a gas mask and bicycle helmet. Another photo shows the defendants walking single-file through the Capitol rotunda.

No other details of their actions that day were alleged in the charges.

The arrests brought the number of Illinoisans charged so far in the Capitol breach to 23. The ongoing investigation has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal investigation in the country’s history.

Last month, James Robert Elliott, 24, of Aurora, was charged with felony counts alleging he used a flagpole to assault officers while illegally on the Capitol grounds.

The three men arrested Wednesday are not accused of any violence.

According to a criminal complaint, the FBI tentatively identified them through Google records showing devices linked to their email addresses were in or around the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. Investigators later linked the addresses to photos of the men posted on social media and contained in driver’s license records, according to the complaint.

In October, agents interviewed a relative of the Carollo brothers who confirmed the identities of all three men and that they were at the Capitol on the day of the attack, according to the complaint.

All three men later admitted that they traveled together to Washington and entered the Capitol with the crowd, the complaint alleged.

Nationwide, more than 725 people have been arrested in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on charges stemming from the Capitol breach, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com