Exposed: The secret army of 200 weapons-obsessed ex-soldiers plotting to cause mayhem on British streets
Called Veterans 4 Freedom, they’re split into 16 cells – and use encrypyted texts to swap notes on deadly crossbows and how to sabotage the UK vaccination drive
A SINISTER private army of more than 200 ex-servicemen and women is plotting to cause mayhem across Britain with a series of devastating anti-vaccine offensives, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Calling itself Veterans 4 Freedom (V4F) and founded by a former Royal Marine commando, the self-styled paramilitary group is made up of 16 operational ‘cells’ across Britain, linked to a secret leadership command.
Some members appear obsessed with weapons and have discussed violent insurrection, including attacking vaccine centres and targeting employees – what one chillingly termed ‘bringing the fight to the people sticking the needle in’.
The group insists all new recruits provide evidence of service in the Armed Forces. Once ‘vetted’ they are given access to a channel on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app used by extremists and criminals due to its high security levels.
Over the past few weeks the
‘We’ll take out the military with dirty tricks’
group has quietly recruited and hopes to garner public support with a peaceful march on Parliament on September 8 during which the exservicemen will wear ‘headdress’
But a Mail on Sunday investigator last week infiltrated V4F and discovered, far from benign, its goal is to escalate covert activities.
One senior member said: ‘If it comes to an insurgency, the military will become enemy combatants and we’ll take them out using dirty tricks. They are identifiable by wearing a uniform. We are not.’
Another V4F leader, who uses the name Bellzaac on Telegram, stresses publicly that the group only advocates ‘legal forms of protest and resistance’, but he is less circumspect when addressing the group on the app.
‘We are f ****** cavalry,’ he wrote in one message. ‘No one else is going to do what needs to be done when it gets messy. We know it’s going to happen, it’s not a matter of if.’
Another said of the September 8 march: ‘We have to look military and the part, proud protectors of our oaths. This does not mean that in the future we need the same approach.’
Member John H, who posted a picture of himself holding a telescopic rifle, mentions receiving a walkie-talkie from a friend who was once in the Ulster Volunteer Force, loyalist paramilitaries. Others plan to use radios.
Discussing the vaccination of children against coronavirus on the app, John H wrote: ‘What security do these people have? How secure will the phials and equipment be in schools. I think a small group of “parents” could easily restrain the vaccinator and remove the drugs . . .’ Another member shared photographs among colleagues of vaccine-centre workers and their car registration numbers.
Another common enemy is the police. One ex-serviceman, Paul, posted last week: ‘Be good if “someone” slashed tyres of pig cars all over the country.’ Elsewhere, another member appears to suggest sabotaging vaccine stores across Britain, saying that if one ‘were to suffer an accident . . . might be a start’. In his response, a leader says: ‘I know one place . . . Won’t say on here but if people want a private chat I’ll organise it.’
Earlier this month anti-vax protesters clashed with police when attempting to storm what was once a key BBC site in West London.
Social media video showed officers outside Television Centre. More than 100 demonstrators, organised by the anti-vax group Official Voice, pushed and harangued officers while chanting ‘Shame on you’.
None of the V4F veterans was involved but the protest prompted one member to suggest on Telegram that V4F should go to the BBC and take it over, not just stand outside. Another says: ‘The BBC building needs f ****** burning down.’
Other anti-vax groups have turned their sights on the media.
Last Monday hundreds of activists flooded into ITN Productions, home to ITV and Channel 4 News. V4F is reminiscent of the American amateur militia groups that stormed Congress in January, prompting concerns about the long-term threat of ‘domestic extremism’ in the US.
And its formation follows the revelation earlier this year that at least 16 members of the Armed Forces have been referred to the UK’s terrorism prevention programme – in the majority of cases because of concerns about far-right activity.
The group’s founder, Bellzaac, declined to comment.