Spanish police dismantle a neo-Nazi group linked to the US organization "The Base"

Spanish police announced on Monday that they had dismantled a cell of "The Base," a neo-Nazi and white supremacist group considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

This movement, founded in the United States, operates through a decentralized and clandestine international network of small cells that aim to carry out attacks and prepare for a "race war," police said in a statement.

The investigation launched this year led to the discovery of a cell in Spain, whose members were "highly radicalized" and had undergone training "using paramilitary techniques and materials," the same source said.

In recent months, the suspects had encouraged "the carrying out of violent actions, even going so far as to openly state that they were willing to carry out targeted attacks for the cause."

The cell leader was "in direct contact" with the founder of the US group, who recently called for "the execution of targeted attacks in order to collapse Western democratic institutions."

The agents arrested three people last week, including the head of this Spanish cell, who was later ordered to be imprisoned.

During the searches, carried out in the province of Castellón (east), law enforcement seized two firearms, ammunition and neo-Nazi propaganda items.

American Rinaldo Nazzaro founded this group in 2018 as a network for far-right nationalists preparing for armed conflict, before settling in St. Petersburg and acquiring Russian citizenship, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.

Last year, the European Union added "The Base" to its list of terrorist organizations, imposing sanctions on its members, such as travel bans or the freezing of their assets in Europe.