The State Police participated in a complex international police operation coordinated by the Eurojust and Europol agencies as part of the fight against the phenomenon of supremacist and neo-Nazi radicalism on the web, which made it possible to dismantle a network active throughout Europe, in which two Italian minors were also highlighted.
Six countries were involved, several members of the group were searched and five were arrested, distributed throughout Europe in an occult network, ready to commit violent acts at any time against Jews, Muslims and anyone considered of an "inferior race".
In Italy, the activity involved investigators from the Cyber Security Operations Center of the Postal Police and the DIGOS of Turin for several months, directed by the Prosecutor's Office for Juveniles of Turin and Salerno, with the coordination of the National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office and, for operational profiles, the Central Directorate of the Prevention Police and the Postal and Communications Police Service.
On the chats, characterized by a strong tendency towards violence, actual manuals for the attack and sabotage of critical infrastructures as well as instructions for the manufacture of weapons and explosives had been published. The extremely captivating advertising, composed of modern graphics and multimedia content with a devastating visual impact, were among the most insidious aggregation factors, especially for the youngest participants.
The group's mottos are unmistakable, such as "Join us, Kill with us", "Fight with us, die with us, kill with us Kill the enemies of the white race", as well as the use of the symbolism of accelerationist and neo-Nazi acronyms such as example the swastika, the “skull mask” and the “black sun”.
Furthermore, a real "cult" was detected on the part of the participants towards supremacists who over the years have been responsible for serious terrorist attacks, such as the Utoya massacre in 2011 and the Christchurch massacre in 2019.
The two Italian minors, particularly active in the publication of xenophobic and anti-Semitic hate phrases, had initially passed through the network and later left to join another Telegram group of neo-Nazi origin, based on more theoretical-ideological positions and less militant on an operational level.
Computers and mobile phones were seized from the two - investigated in a state of freedom - and from the minor from Turin also some replicas of airsoft weapons, a dagger imprinted with effigies and symbols of Nazism as well as reproductions of distinctive signs of the police force.
The investigations, through the analysis of digital devices, will continue in order to reconstruct the still hidden branches of the network and the still unknown and potentially dangerous subjects.