The Spanish Civil Guard has arrested three neo-Nazis and charged them with seven hate crimes for attacking different places of special significance for the Jewish community in Burgos and Madrid.
Among the cases that these two antisemitic men and a woman, aged between 36 and 42, are charged with are multiple acts of vandalism committed in the town of Castrillo Mota de Judíos (Burgos), which until 2015 was called Castrillo Matajudíos, where they tried to burn an Israeli flag, set fire to containers and painted neo-fascist graffiti.
According to the agents, they have also attacked Jewish areas in the Madrid cemeteries of La Almudena and Hoyo de Manzanares.
The investigators, who christened the action Operation Perinola-Lienzo, began in December 2021 after antisemitic messages were written in the town of Burgos, especially directed against the alderman, Lorenzo Rodríguez.
“Mayor sold to the murderous Jew”, read one of the graffiti.
This town, which boosts its historical connection with the Israeli community, has suffered multiple actions of neo-Nazi gangs, and the threats increased and resulted in the burning of waste containers, something that for the Guardia Civil was an “attempt to increase the threat” on a quiet town of just 50 inhabitants.
“These events caused a disturbance of public peace in the small town of Castrillo Mota de Judíos, where a feeling of insecurity and fear was generated in the neighbours due to the climate of violence,” explains a statement from the Guardia Civil.
At the same time, the Madrid Command had already been monitoring a group of ultras since October 2020, after deploying a control device after detecting other antisemitic attacks – such as xenophobic and anti-Semitic graffiti – in the synagogue of Villanueva de la Cañada, in a Jewish cultural centre in Alcobendas, and in the cemeteries of Hoyo de Manzanares and La Almudena.
The agents discovered that the different graffiti could be attributed to the same author. The investigation led to the arrest of the three members of this neo-Nazi group. The search revealed that these people are related to “xenophobic movements with a marked antisemitic discourse, whose messages focus on hatred against the Jewish population and their environment”.
Thus, they are considered to be part of a “radical right-wing extremist criminal group” that was organised to commit these crimes with “security measures to avoid detection”.
During the searches of the suspects’ homes in Las Rozas and Algete (Madrid), the Guardia Civil found all kinds of material with fascist symbolism: booklets with a picture of the dictator Adolf Hitler, books extolling Nazism, stickers and swastikas. In addition, “paraphernalia and documentation of Nazi ideology” was found, as well as electric pistols (known by their trade name Taser) and compressed air pistols.