Spanish police said they had broken up the country’s first known cell linked to The Base, a white supremacist group designated as a terrorist organisation by the European Union.
Three people were arrested and one, suspected of leading the group, has been remanded in custody in the eastern province of Castellon, north of Valencia. A number of weapons including two firearms, seven training weapons, ammunition, more than 20 knives, tactical gear and neo-Nazi material were recovered.
The arrests come as broader far-right sentiment rises in Spain, where polls show growing youth support for nationalist groups and renewed debate over the country’s authoritarian past.
“The leader of the Spanish cell was in direct contact with the founder of The Base, who a month ago called for the consolidation of cells spread across several countries,” the police said in a statement.
Police added the suspects were highly radicalized and had conducted paramilitary training. They had also expressed readiness to carry out selective attacks and used social media to recruit sympathizers.
The Base, a neo-Nazi group founded by Rinaldo Nazzaro in 2018 in the United States, promotes “accelerationism,” an ideology that seeks to hasten the collapse of democratic institutions through violent attacks.
Nazzaro, a US citizen, started the group in July 2018 as a network for radical right-wing nationalists readying for armed conflict and then moved to Saint Petersburg and took up Russian citizenship, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.
The Counter Extremism Project, an association focused on extremist groups, said Nazzaro worked for the US Department of Homeland Security between 2004 and 2006, and reportedly with US forces in the Middle East on counterterrorism, a role that gave him top-secret clearance.
Nazzaro resigned his US national security position after developing his white nationalist beliefs, the Counter Extremism Project said.
The CSIS think tank said there were concerns that “The Base poses a notable threat of attracting radicalized members from the US military” and in law enforcement.
