The Guardian reports:

After Spanish police and Europol’s counter-terrorism section arrested three suspected members of the Base – a globally proscribed neo-Nazi terrorist group – in the eastern province of Castellón, its American leader living in Russia was defiant and signaled further actions.

In a text message to the Guardian, Rinaldo Nazzaro called the arrests another “example of political persecution” by world governments that are “further justifying our resistance to its hegemonic rule by any means necessary”.

The group’s presence on the Iberian peninsula underlines how its American brand of extremism, glorifying hyper-violence and modeling itself on an armed insurgency against the state, continues to popularize and be exported abroad. Nazzaro and the Base are also suspected of harboring links to Kremlin spy agencies and aiding their broader sabotage efforts.

Experts were shocked at the level of organization and the arsenal of weaponry the cell was able to achieve inside of Europe.

“This cell was particularly serious,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a terrorism researcher at the Counter Extremism Project who keeps tabs on the digital accounts of the Base. “It should be noted that the group’s cell in Spain had its own public Telegram channel, which is unusual, where they repeatedly called on others to join the group, shared photos of weapons training and urged militant action.”

In recent months, the Base has made headlines, claiming the July assassination of a Ukrainian officer in Kyiv and other acts of terrorism inside Ukraine. Then, last week, a Luxembourg court imprisoned a Swedish member of the Base for plotting a mass casualty event at a past Eurovision singing competition. [Continue reading…]