Revealed: neo-Nazi active club counts several of US military as members
A neo-Nazi “active club” counts several current and former members of the United States military as its members, the Guardian has learned, including a lance corporal machine gunner currently in detention on insubordination charges and a former US Marine Corps staff sergeant who was booted from the service for stealing large quantities of ammunition.
Lance corporal machine gunner Mohammed Wadaa and former Marine Corps staff sergeant Gunnar Naughton are part of the Clockwork Crew, California’s first ‘active club,’ according to the group’s own internal research records and social media posts,as well as law enforcement sources.
Active clubs – white nationalists and neo-fascist fight clubs that train in combat sports – are a growing concern for US law enforcement. Their recruitment among active and former members of the military underscores both the broadening appeal of the fitnesscentric organising model and the American armed services’ persistent struggle with extremism within the ranks.
The Clockwork Crew, formerly known as Crew 562 (the area code for Long Beach, California), was founded in 2021 and counts roughly a dozen members, researchers say.
The group has considerable overlap with other California active clubs, as well as with the Golden State Skinheads, a more ‘traditional’ skinhead gang of whom some members stabbed several anti-fascist protesters at a chaotic 2016 clash outside the state capitol in Sacramento. Clockwork Crew’s reach also briefly extended to eastern Europe: Juraj Mesić, a Croatian neoNazi, headed an eight-person chapter in that country before being arrested in March for racist abuse of an immigrant worker, according to news reports and internal chats.
Researchers say Clockwork Crew stands out because of its members’ wil