Spanish police said Monday they had busted a cell in “The Base,” a white transnational neo-Nazi group designated a terrorist organization by the European Union, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The US-founded movement operates through a decentralized international network of paramilitary cells that aim to carry out attacks and prepare for a “race war”, the police said. he said in a statement.
An investigation launched earlier this year found a Spanish cell whose members were “highly radicalized” and trained using “paramilitary techniques and equipment,” police said.
In recent months, the suspects “incited acts of violence, even though they have openly expressed their willingness to carry out attacks in support of the cause,” authorities said.
The leader of the cell was in “direct contact” with the founder of the group, and a month ago the police requested “targeted attacks aimed at destroying Western democratic institutions”.
Police arrested three suspects last week, including the leader, on charges of being a member of a terrorist organization, recruiting, indoctrinating and training for terrorist purposes and possessing illegal weapons.
Firearms, ammunition and neo-Nazi paraphernalia were also seized during raids in the eastern province of Castellon.
The police released a video showing officers searching a property and handcuffing suspects. The video showed officers seizing guns and other weapons, as well as books with former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on the cover.
U.S. citizen Rinaldo Nazzaro founded the group in 2018 as a network of radical right-wing nationalists ready for armed conflict, then moved to St. Petersburg and took Russian citizenship, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In 2020, FBI agents arrested former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Jordan Mathews and two other members of “The Base” for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack at a pro-gun rally in Virginia. The next year, it was Mathews nine years sentence in prison in Maryland.
Last year, the European Union added “The Base” to its terrorist list, imposing sanctions including a travel ban and an asset freeze in Europe.
according to Southern Poverty Law Centerthe group is “an anti-Semitic white nationalist network that trains members in survival and paramilitary skills in preparation for mounting armed resistance against the government.”
“Comprised of small terrorist cells, The Base believes that society must be driven to collapse so that a white ethnostate can be built from the ruins,” says the SPLC.