4 British soldiers held in neo-Nazi terror crackdown
Actively recruiting
FOUR British Army soldiers were last night being questioned after being arrested for supporting neo-Nazi terrorism.
The servicemen were among five people held by police on suspicion of being members of National Action, a far-Right group banned by the Government.
The organisation, linked to the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, was described by the Home Office as ‘virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic’ and eager to see the UK embroiled in a ‘violent race war’.
The military personnel were seized after investigators uncovered ‘inflammatory’ far-Right material, including images and slogans, on encrypted social media site WhatsApp.
Three of the soldiers served with the 2nd Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment, known as the Poachers, and based in Cyprus, while a fourth was part of 4th Regiment Army Air Corps in Wattisham, Suffolk. The fifth man arrested during yesterday’s raids is a civilian.
The suspected extremists were detained under the Terrorism Act 2000 as part of a ‘pre-planned and intelligence-led’ operation and there was ‘no threat to the public’s safety’, police said. Sources said the men were not plotting an attack.
A 32-year-old fitness instructor was the most senior of the four serving soldiers arrested in the swoop on the group. He was based at the Wales HQ of the British Army in Brecon, Powys.
One of his tasks would be to identify private soldiers who have ‘potential to be future leaders’.
The experienced soldier was based at the Infantry Battle School, where soldiers from across the UK, including the SAS, come to train.
He is understood to have met the other three soldiers during a training course in the town. One was arrested at the Army’s Dhekelia base in Cyprus, while a 24-year- old servicemen from Ipswich was also detained. The other two held, including the civilian, were a 22-year-old from Birmingham and a 24-year-old from Northampton. None of the men have yet been named.
An Army spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that a number of serving members of the Army have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for being associated with a proscribed far right group. These arrests are the consequence of a policeled operation supported by the Army.’
The arrests were carried out with the West Midlands Counter-Terrorism Unit in conjunction with the Wales Extremism Counter-Terrorism Unit and the East Midlands Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Unit.
All four who were arrested in the UK are being held at a police station in the West Midlands. The suspect who was picked up in Cyprus was being transferred to RAF Akrotiri, from where he was to be flown back to Britain.
National Action became the first extreme right-wing group to be banned under terrorism laws in December 2016.
In December last year, the British neoNazi organisation was proscribed under powers outlawing the glorification of terrorism – meaning it is a crime, punishable by a maximum ten years in prison, to be a members or supporter of the organisation.
National Action had links to Thomas Mair, the 54-year-old white supremacist who murdered Mrs Cox outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016.
The loner received a whole-life sentence after being convicted of the killing, which was described by prosecutors as a terrorist attack. His only statement given in court was ‘Death to traitors, freedom for Britain’, the slogan on National Action’s former website.
After the killing, the group posted vile messages including, ‘Our thoughts go out to Thomas Mair’ and ‘ Don’t let this man’s sacrifice go in vain. Jo Cox would have filled Yorkshire with more subhumans.’ Another read: ‘Only 649 MPs to go.’
Home Secretary Amber Rudd to banned the group after an assessment that it was ‘concerned in terrorism’ before Mair’s trial.
The group also made headlines for hosting a ‘Miss Hitler’ contest and for posting pictures online of them performing Nazi salutes at the Buchenwald Camp in Germany, where 50,000 people died.
In February, just three months after the ban, anti-extremist campaign group Hope not Hate reported National Action was continuing to operate ‘in all but name and poses a serious terrorist threat’. Last month the charity said the group was actively recruiting and training from a converted warehouse it had rented in Warrington, Cheshire.
Neighbours said a dozen members regularly train inside using knives and baseball bats.
Last night Matthew Collins of Hope not Hate, said: ‘We have maintained that National Action still poses a very serious risk since its ban. We are concerned that some of those tasked with monitoring or disrupting the group do not appreciate how sophisticated and secretive it has become.
‘Contrary to belief, the far right in Britain is in electoral and numerical decline.
‘It has abandoned the ballot box almost entirely, and thus while smaller, it is also more dangerous and criminal than at any other time we can recall.’