Tag Archives: National Action

A man has been jailed for eight years today after he was found guilty of distributing extremist publications.

The man − who cannot be named for legal reasons − was found guilty of two charges of possessing documents likely to be useful to a person preparing to commit an act of terrorism and distribution of a terrorist publication.

A 33-year-old soldier − Mikko Vehvilainen – has also been jailed for eight years but details of this offence cannot be disclosed for legal reasons.

Vehvilainen, who is a lance corporal in the army and born in Finland, was arrested by officers from West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (WMCTU) at his army base in Brecon, Powys in September 2017.

At an earlier hearing, Vehvilainen admitted a separate offence of being in possession of pepper spray.
Following a search of his military address, officers found a war hammer which had “Isaiah 48:22” carved into the handle referencing a passage from the Bible – “There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked”.

Also found were throwing knives, two crossbows, a number of arrows and component parts of an electromagnetic pulse device. A mannequin was found in Vehvilainen’s garage which had knife marks in the torso area.

West Midlands Police

Man guilty of terrorism offences over extremist publications

By virginiagolden

April 12, 2018

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A man has been convicted of committing terrorism offences after he was found guilty of distributing extremist publications.

The man – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was found guilty of two charges of possessing documents likely to be useful to a person preparing to commit an act of terrorism and distribution of a terrorist publication.

A 33-year-old soldier – Mikko Vehvilainen – was also found guilty but details of this offence cannot be disclosed for legal reasons.

Vehvilainen, who is a lance corporal working as a trainer in the army and born in Finland, was arrested by officers from West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (WMCTU) at his army base in Brecon, Powys in September 2017.

At an earlier hearing, Vehvilainen admitted a separate offence of being in possession of pepper spray.

Following a search of his military address, officers found a war hammer which had “Isaiah 48:22” carved into the handle referencing a passage from the Bible – “There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked”.

A third man, 24-year-old Mark Barrett – a private in the military − also stood trial and was found not guilty of an offence which cannot be disclosed for legal reasons.

Detective Chief Superintendent Matt Ward, who heads the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, said: “We are committed to tackling all forms of extremism which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.”

Anyone who sees or hears something that could be terrorist-related should act on their instincts and call the police in confidence on 0800 789 321. In an emergency, always dial 999. Visit gov.uk/ACT for more information, including how to report extremist or terrorist content that is online.
West Midlands Police

Nazi-salute British soldier cleared of terrorism offence

By virginiagolden

April 12, 2018

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Cpl Mikko Vehvilainen found not guilty over Breivik manifesto after admitting having CS gas

A serving British soldier who kept a photo of himself giving a Nazi-style salute has been cleared of a terrorism offence.

Cpl Mikko Vehvilainen, a white supremacist who collected a host of legally held weaponry, pleaded guilty to a separate charge of having a banned canister of CS gas, which he kept in a drawer at a property he was renovating in Llansilin, Powys.

A jury at Birmingham crown court cleared him of possession of a terrorism document – a charge that related to a manifesto by the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik – and two counts of stirring up racial hatred, relating to forum posts on a white nationalist website.

Vehvilainen, of the Royal Anglian Regiment, kept a homemade target dummy in the garage of his barracks home at Sennybridge Camp, Brecon, and had a container filled with 11 knives, knuckle-dusters, a face mask and a box of Nazi flags, all legally held.

He kept a licensed shotgun, a crossbow and bow and homemade arrows, he had wiring and electrical parts capable of being made into a crude electro-magnetic pulse device, and he customised army-issue body armour, spray-painting it black. He also had a Hitler Youth knife and an SS ceremonial dagger.

Vehvilainen wrote to two men jailed for race crimes, including a man convicted of making antisemitic remarks to the Labour MP Luciana Berger, telling them “there is still hope”. He wrote a draft of an extreme rightwing magazine he entitled Extinction, in which he railed against mixed-race relationships, “unnatural” homosexuality and “non-whites”.

Vehvilainen’s phone showed 900 visits to a white nationalist website, Cristogenea.org.

Vehvilainen’s barrister, Pavlos Panayi QC, told jurors at the start of the trial that it was “not in dispute that he [Vehvilainen] is a racist”, but he said it was not a crime simply to hold such views.

The prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said that in collecting weapons Vehvilainen was “putting into effect his repeated call, quite literally, to arms on the part of those who, like him, wanted to create a white-only society”.

An entry in a notebook found at Vehvilainen’s address, read: “Be prepared to fight and die for your race in a possible last stand for our survival.”

Atkinson said: “The lists [of weapons], and indeed the substantial quantity of weaponry recovered from his address, reveal and speak to his intention to stockpile weapons and other equipment in preparation for the ‘race war’ that he spoke of.”

In Vehvilainen’s wardrobe, where he kept his uniform, police found a Nazi flag pinned to the inside of the door. When he opened the door for officers, he turned to them and said: “That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”

On his arrest on 5 September last year, Vehvilainen told his wife: “I’m being arrested for being a patriot.”

He was on trial alongside Pte Mark Barrett, 25, also of the Royal Anglians, and formerly of Kendrew barracks, Cottesmore, Rutland. Barrett was acquitted of a charge of membership of the proscribed far-right organisation National Action.

A 23-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was cleared of having Breivik’s manifesto but convicted of three other terrorism offences.

Vehvilainen and the 23-year-old will be sentenced on Friday.

The Guardian

Soldier accused of recruiting for National Action ‘is a racist but not a criminal’, court told

By virginiagolden

March 15, 2018

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Mikko Vehvilainen accused of membership of banned neo-Nazi group

A court sketch of Mikko Vehvilainen, left, and Mark Barrett, centre, on trial at Birmingham Crown Court. (Image: Elizabeth Cook)

The “racist” views of an Army trainer and alleged recruiter for banned neo-Nazi group National Action do not make him a criminal, a jury has been told.

The barrister for 33-year-old Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen told jurors on Wednesday it was “not in dispute that he is a racist”.

Pavlos Panayi QC said: “It is not disputed that he has written and said things which the vast majority of people will find utterly repulsive, about black people, Jews, Muslims and lots of other minority groups.

“It is not disputed he has associated with other racists, men and women, from what might be called the Far Right, that might include neo-Nazis, and other different groups of people.”

But he added that while the “groundbreaking case” would test the limits of free speech and freedom of association in Britain, Vehvilainen’s actions were not criminal.

Vehvilainen and fellow Royal Anglian Regiment soldier, 25-year-old Private Mark Barrett are both on trial accused of membership of the far-right organisation, which was banned by the government in December 2016

Also facing the same charge at Birmingham Crown Court is a 23-year-old male who cannot be named for legal reasons, but who was described in court as a “regional leader” for the group.

The jury heard how Vehvilainen had a host lawfully held weapons including “guns, knives and crossbows” which he kept at his Army accommodation in Sennybridge Camp, Powys.

Jurors were also told he had pleaded guilty to unlawfully having a canister of CS spray among those weapons.

Addressing the jury after the prosecution’s opening speech, Mr Panayi said: “In many ways this case is unprecedented because you have heard that National Action was the first far-right group to be banned since the Second World War and this is the first prosecution arising out of that ban.

“It is a groundbreaking case.”

He added: “This case will test the limits of free speech, the freedom to say what you think and the freedom to frighten, offend and discuss.”

The QC said: “You are, in the end, going to have to determine in this case where the boundary lies between L/Cpl Mikko Vehvilainen’s right to speak freely, to think what he chooses to, and associate with others who share his views and where that boundary lies.

“Whether it crosses over into the reaches of criminal law or not.”

Vehvilainen, who is married with children, is also accused of two counts of stirring up racial hatred through posts on the US-based Christogenea.org website, where he used the name NicoChristian.

He has been further charged with possessing a document likely to be of use to terrorists – a copy of white nationalist Anders Breivik’s manifesto.

Counsel for Barrett, of Dhekalia Barracks, Cyprus, where he lived with his wife and children, also told the jury the case was “not about assessing the morality of expressing prejudicial opinions all right-minded people might recoil from”.

Colin Aylott said: “Are the hallmarks of membership truly present in what he did, and how he expressed himself?

“Ask yourself – casual racist of committed fanatic?

“Because that is the issue you have to decide in this case.”

Addressing the court on behalf of the defendant who cannot be named, barrister Christopher Knox claimed National Action “did not exist” as an organisation after it was banned.

Mr Knox said of the 23-year-old: “We will submit to you that he is no terrorist.

“He was involved with National Action and he held views which he well understands you might find really distasteful, but those are views he was, and is, entitled to hold.”

The court heard that the male had made attempts to join the Army.
Birmingham Mail

New Hitler youth is enemy at the gates

By virginiagolden

March 3, 2018

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Pictures taken during a tour by Brandon Russell in 2015 including at Buckingham Palace

A jailed American neo-Nazi leader has boasted that he met the banned British fascist group National Action outside Buckingham Palace.

Brandon Russell, who was jailed for five years after police found bomb-making materials in his flat, is a co-founder of Atomwaffen, an extremist network whose young followers have been implicated in a string of murders.

National Action, Britain’s most prominent far-right terrorist group, targets youth, promotes race war and tweeted after the murder of Jo Cox: “Only 649 MPs to go.”

An image on Atomwaffen’s website

The discovery of a transatlantic alliance between young Hitler enthusiasts comes days after Mark Rowley, Britain’s most senior counterterrorism officer, warned that violent British white supremacists were starting to make international connections.

Russell used his nickname “Odin” on the neo-Nazi Iron March forum to describe his tour of Britain with National Action in July 2015. He stopped at sensitive locations such as Buckingham Palace where Atomwaffen and National Action members posed with their respective flags. A third flag unfurled there represented Iron March.

National Action’s flag incorporates the symbol of Sir Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement in which his son Max, now a privacy campaigner, was a prominent activist.

Russell took photographs during his British tour of a display cabinet showing Sir Oswald and his fascist propaganda at the Imperial War Museum in London. He posted the images on Iron March. After the party visited the Houses of Parliament, National Action blogged: “It was good to see the faces of the scum leaving the HOP because they’ll be easier to recognise for the day of the rope.”

Russell met members of National Action, including Ben Raymond, its co-founder, just after one of the organisation’s supporters, Zack Davies, had been convicted for trying to behead an Asian dentist in Mold, north Wales.

Atomwaffen, which means “atomic weapon” in German, was formed in 2015 and is estimated to have only 80 members scattered around the United States. The extremist group was co-founded by housemates Russell, now 22, and Devon Arthurs in Tampa, Florida, in 2015. Russell was sentenced to five years in prison in January after police found bomb-making material at their home. Arthurs told authorities that Russell had been planning to blow up a nuclear power plant near Miami.

Police stumbled on Russell’s home-made explosives when they were called to the flat last May after Arthurs, 18, shot dead their housemates Andrew Oneschuk, 18, and Jeremy Himmelman, 22.

Samuel Woodward, 20, a supporter of Atomwaffen, has been arrested over the alleged hate crime murder of Blaze Bernstein, 19, a former classmate who was gay and Jewish, in Orange County, California, in January.

In December, Nicholas Giampa, 17, who was influenced by Atomwaffen’s online literature, allegedly shot dead his girlfriend’s parents in Reston, Virginia, after they convinced her to ditch him for being a neo-Nazi. Atomwaffen was banned this week by YouTube “due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy prohibiting hate speech”.

Mr Rowley, who is to retire as assistant commissioner of the Met, gave a parting warning on far-Right terror. “It’s a significant part of the threat and it’s growing,” he told LBC, adding that 18 months ago the Home Secretary proscribed National Action as a terrorist organisation. “What that means in the UK is that we have a home-grown neo-Nazi white supremacist organisation with terrorist purposes operating here,” he said. “They also are starting to make connections internationally. That’s a matter of real concern.”

Behind the story

National Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Amber Rudd, the home secretary, in December 2016 after the murderer of Jo Cox gave its slogan “Death To Traitors, Freedom For Britain” as his name in court.

The research group Hope Not Hate claims the organisation has continued to operate despite being outlawed: “A core of National Action supporters simply ignored the ban and continued as before, moving their organisation underground and communicating clandestinely using a wide array of secure methods. Others decided to set up front organisations to continue the group’s work but circum-venting the law.”

National Action was co-founded in 2014 by Ben Raymond, 28, a former double-glazing salesman from Bognor Regis, and Alex Davies, 21, from Swansea.

Scottish Dawn, a front group created by Raymond, appeared on the streets in Scotland last year but has also now been banned.
The Times

Ethan Stables faces life in prison after being found GUILTY of planning to commit a terror attack

By virginiagolden

February 5, 2018

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The 20-year-old has been convicted after a two-week trial

BARROW terrorist Ethan Stables has been found guilty of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

Ethan Stables, 20, planned to kill people attending a gay pride event at the New Empire pub in Barrow, Cumbria.

Armed police stopped him on the way to the pub following a tip-off from a member of a far-right Facebook group where he had posted a message saying he was “going to war”.

Stables had written that he planned to “slaughter every single one of the gay bastards”.

He was unarmed when he was arrested on June 23 but police found an axe and a machete at his home, Leeds Crown Court has heard over the last two weeks.

The jury was shown a video of a burning rainbow flag and Stables saying “gays look nicer on fire”.

Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting, said Stables had previously espoused homophobic, racist and Nazi views online, and the defendant was pictured with a Swastika flag hanging on his bedroom wall.

Stables said in his defence that did not intend to carry out the attack and he was simply venting his anger online.

The defendant, who has told the court he is bisexual and has autism spectrum condition, denies preparing an act of terrorism, making threats to kill and possessing explosive.

He denied he was doing a “recce” of the venue when he was arrested and said he was heading out to sit outside the jobcentre to use the free public wifi.

Stables claimed he was a liberal and adopted a right-wing persona to fit in with people he chatted to online.

Here’s a summary of the prosecution’s case against 20-year-old Ethan Stables:

Stables was arrested on Michaelson Road – just yards away from the New Empire pub where he had told friends on Facebook he planned to “slaughter every single one” of the people at a LGBT event.

The landlord’s wife, Lorraine Neale, described how she was terrified for her customers and feared Stables would come inside unnoticed.

Police searched Stables’ flat at Egerton Court and found match head composition and weapons including a machete and an axe inside the flat as well as a swastika flag and armband.

Government explosives expert Sharon Broome has said the material found in the flat could have been used to make a credible bomb.

During his first police interview Stables made “no comment” to all questions. He told the jury this was because he was advised to do so by his solicitor from Poole Townsend and “trusted them”.

In a later interview Stables vowed to “tell the truth” and told counter terrorism officers he was right wing and admired Nazis including Adolf Hitler.

When he took to the stand, Stables shocked the court by announcing he was bisexual, and claimed he had been scared to declare his sexuality because of his grandparents’ right wing views.

Stables told the jury he was “ashamed” and “sorry” for his racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic comments and had never intended to hurt anyone.

Stables said his Asperger Syndrome and other mental health issues explained his constant attempts to “fit in” and impress his far right friends.

Phillip Loveless, the gay godfather of Ethan Stables, said he had “always expected” something to happen but had no reason to believe his godson was homophobic.

Stables’ mother, Elaine Asbury, recalled her son’s difficult childhood and expulsion from school because of his behavioural problems and Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

Mrs Asbury kicked her son out of the family home after he threatened to chop her head off and burn the house down. Stables had few friends and claimed he was a victim of bullying.

Character witnesses Anne Diss and Stuart Barclay from Cowran Estates farm described Stables as a pleasant and polite young man who went out of his way to make friends.

Two psychiatrists both agreed Stables’ autistic spectrum disorder would not have prevented him from knowing his threats would be taken seriously.

One expert disputed Stables’ claim he was embarrassed of his sexuality and said he had been eager to talk about his bisexual experiences.

Defence psychiatrist Dr Matthew Appleyard said Stables was suffering from clinical depression – something which can exacerbate the features of an autistic spectrum disorder.

Since being in custody Stables has attempted to take an overdose and is being assessed to consider if he should be moved to a secure mental health unit.

North West Evening Mail

Alleged far-right extremist from Barrow, 19, due to appear on trial today

By virginiagolden

January 22, 2018

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Ethan Stables is accused of preparing terrorist acts and threatening to kill people attending a gay pride event

AN alleged far-right extremist from Barrow who denies preparing terrorist acts and threatening to kill people attending a gay pride event is due to appear at Leeds Crown Court today (22).

Ethan Stables, 19, admitted a charge of possession of explosive under suspicious circumstances when he last appeared by video-link for a hearing at Leeds Crown Court on January 5.

Unemployed Stables, of Egerton Court, also pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing information likely to be useful to people preparing or committing acts of terrorism.

But he denied charges of the preparation of terrorist acts and making a threat to kill.

It is alleged that, in June, Stables made a threat to “kill persons attending a Pride Night event at a public house in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.”

The charge alleges that he made the threat to members of a Facebook chat group called “National Socialists Union standing against New World Order”.

The charge Stables faces of preparation of terrorist acts has nine separate elements.

One of these elements alleges that he was “reconnoitring and collecting information about the New Empire Public House in Barrow-in-Furness, including the taking of photographs”.

Another alleges that his preparations included declaring to a Facebook chat group “his willingness and intention to attack and kill persons attending a Pride Night at the New Empire Public House in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria” on June 23.

Other elements of the charge include: “Conducting internet searches and/or accessing material relating to joining Combat 18, the proscribed terrorist group National Action, preparing for a ‘Race War’ and ‘How to be a terrorist’.”

It also alleged he conducted searches or accessed recordings of “extreme violence, torture, executions and other terrorist acts including killing sprees, rampage killers and mass murder”.

Another element of the charge alleges Stables’ preparations included “acquiring a number of weapons including a machete, an axe, three knives, a Kendo stick and a wooden practice sword.”

Stables was remanded in custody by Judge Peter Collier QC ahead of today’s trial.

The Mail

Neo-Nazi bomb-maker sentenced to 5 years

By virginiagolden

January 17, 2018

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The self-proclaimed neo-Nazi Brandon Russell, 22, arrested at the Key Largo Burger King last May after bomb-making materials were found in his car, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew last week to five years in a low-security federal prison followed by three years of supervised probation.

At the time of Russell’s arrest, he was found to be carrying fuses, an M&P 15 Sport 2 semi-automatic assault-style rifle, a Savage Arms Axis .223 caliber hunting rifle with a scope and 500 rounds of ammunition.

Directly following the incident, Russell pleaded not-guilty but then changed his plea to guilty in September on federal charges of possessing bomb-making materials, and for improperly storing such materials. The two charges carry a maximum sentence of 11 years.

Russell’s lawyer, Ian Goldstein, asked the court for leniency in sentencing citing his client’s clean record and immaturity as reasons.

In a memorandum, he wrote, “As a 22 year old former college student and member of the armed forces, the defendant has seen the future he once hoped for evaporate before his eyes. He has learned more in this past year than in his prior 21 years combined, and has demonstrated both remorse and a desire to change.”

He said that this would be Russell’s first and only criminal conviction.

Russell was arrested about 48 hours after he discovered the bodies of his two roommates, Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18, upon returning home from duty with the Army’s National Guard.

The fourth roommate, Devon Arthurs, 18, confessed to killing the two men for a making fun of his recent turn to Islam.

While officers were searching the shared apartment, bomb technicians recognized a “white cake-like” material in a cooler as hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, or HMTD, in the attached garage. Russell admitted the material was his, prosecutors say.

Police found radioactive materials belonging to Russell, as well as white supremacy propaganda and a framed photo of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City federal building bomber.

They found enough explosive materials for the FBI to file the criminal complaint against Russell. Russell said the material was used to launch model rockets which he did as an engineering student.

Russell told the police at the murder scene he was going to visit his father, but instead, picked up a fellow neo-Nazi, who has been identified as William James Tschantre, of Bradenton, and headed toward the Keys. The two stopped to purchase the guns along the way.

It’s unclear what Russell’s intentions were in the Keys.

Arthurs, however, incriminated Russell by saying he planned to target Turkey Point, the nuclear plant near the entrance to the Keys — a seemingly appropriate target for atomwaffen, the neo-Nazi group Russell created and whose name means “atomic weapon” in German.

Goldstein dismissed the Turkey Point matter as “a red herring, a fabrication created by Devon Arthurs in order to justify his own criminal behavior.”

Tschantre told police that he and Russell had no specific destination in mind and had no plans to hurt anyone or do any harm.

Keys News

Neo-Nazi leader gets 5 years for having explosive material

By virginiagolden

January 9, 2018

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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – A neo-Nazi group leader who stockpiled explosive material in the Florida apartment where a friend killed two roommates has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.

The sentence, handed down Tuesday in a Tampa federal court against 22-year-old Brandon Russell, was less than the 11 years sought by prosecutors.

The judge said it was a difficult case because she was concerned that Russell was capable of making bombs but was also worried that he might become involved with other neo-Nazis while in prison.

Devon Arthurs, Russell’s friend, awaits trial in state court on charges of murdering their two roommates, Andrew Oneschuk and Jeremy Himmelman.

Russell wasn’t charged in the May 2017 killings, which exposed the four roommates’ membership in Atomwaffen Division, an obscure neo-Nazi group that formed on the internet.

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Tag Archives: National Action

New Hitler youth is enemy at the gates

Neo-Nazi bomb-maker sentenced to 5 years

Neo-Nazi leader gets 5 years for having explosive material