Italian police have arrested 12 neo-Nazis who are accused of plotting to assassinate prime minister Giorgia Meloni in order to spark civil war and overthrow the government, local media reports.
The ‘Werewolf Division’, a group which operated on Telegram, sought to establish an authoritarian regime ‘centered on the Aryan race’, and planned violent attacks on high-ranking officials to achieve this, according to police.
Raids took place across the country targeting the group on Wednesday, with a total of 25 homes searched and cops uncovering Nazi insignia, fascist flags and zombie knives.
Members of the group allegedly planned to shoot Meloni in the head as she left parliament, with conversations between them reportedly discussing training sessions and reconnaissance missions around Rome.
‘There is a hotel in front of Parliament – is one of the intercepted conversations – from there you can shoot from above,’ one of them reportedly said in the chilling correspondence. ‘I’ll shoot her in the head,’ another said.
The suspects allegedly referred to the Brothers of Italy politician as a ‘concubine of Zion,’ ‘a fascist until she rose to power’ who ‘now denies being one’ and ‘persecutes fascists’, as well as a ‘traitor’.
Anti-terror police said that the group had already been in an advanced stage of operational preparedness and were capable of carrying out attacks at the time of the raids.
Another secretive Telegram group called Movimento Nuova Alba had been set up to discuss the group’s most violent projects and to train the ‘warriors’, with in-person meetings having taken place to discuss the plans, according to investigators.
Emblems of the ne0-Nazi ‘Werewolf Division’ shared on their Telegram channel
On the bedroom wall of one suspect hangs an Italian flag depicting fascist dictator Benito Mussolini doing the Roman Salute
The police raid unveiled zombie knives in one of the more than two dozen properties they searched
Videos of the raids on properties linked to the group show stacks of army uniforms
Members of the group allegedly planned to shoot Giorgia Meloni in the head as she left parliament
The ‘division’ was allegedly headed by three key figures – Daniele Trevisani, said to be the ideological leader, Andrea Ziosi, who allegedly ran communications and kept in touch with the cells located in other countries, and Salvatore Nicotra, reportedly known as ‘the instructor.’
According to documents seen by La Repubblica, he is alleged to have ‘had the task of enlisting and militarily training the members of the association,’ whom they called ‘comrades.’
They allegedly struck up relationships with jihadist groups, sharing methods and combat techniques to achieve their joint objectives of ‘collapsing the system’.
The members, based across the country, allegedly fixated on heading to Rome to ‘punish’ Meloni, proudly stating that they were training for the attack, La Repubblica reports.
They reportedly searched for weapons on the internet and visited shooting ranges to practice firing guns.
They are also accused of recruiting minors on the internet to partake in the violence, allegedly stating that ‘the troops must grow’.
‘Look at my daughter who has learned to do the Roman salute’ writes one of the group, attaching the photo of a newborn with her arm raised. ‘Great! Aryan baby’.
They allegedly shared their racist and anti-Semitic views online, denying the Holocaust and sharing vile statements like ‘a white man is worth three blacks.’
Fascist insignia was strewn around one of the properties, video released by state police shows
Knives were found during the raids, police said, but no firearms nor explosives
Piles of Nazi propaganda books were found in the bedroom of one suspect
The Werewolf Division, an apparent offshoot of the group, took its name from a Nazi militia formed after the Second World War
Videos of the raids on properties linked to the group show stacks of army uniforms, stores of hunting and zombie knives and piles of Nazi propaganda books.
Fortunately, police said, they did not uncover any firearms nor explosives during the raids.
On the bedroom wall of one suspects hangs an Italian flag depicting fascist dictator Benito Mussolini doing the Roman Salute, with the words ‘duce ‘d’Italia’ written next to him.
The police managed to trace the network thanks to thanks to evidence it obtained during a previous investigation into a sister organisation called ‘The Order of Hagal’.
The group, which authorities dissolved in 2022, had similarly made detailed plans to overthrow the Italian government by force, declaring that it would form ‘armies’ to ‘take the politicians out’ in a surprise attack.
The Werewolf Division, an apparent offshoot of the group, took its name from a Nazi militia formed after the Second World War which sought to carry out acts of sabotage and guerrilla warfare against Allied troops.
