Nazi sympathizer, white supremacist, ready to commit attacks and responsible for sexual extortion: these are some of the characteristics that led to the arrest of an eighteen-year-old from Cagliari, very active on Telegram in the Aast group.

The measure was carried out this morning by the agents of the State Police of the capital, who collaborated with their colleagues from Vicenza and Milan. A 20-year-old Romanian associate, who was part of the same network, also ended up in the net.

The measures carried out today come at the end of a complex investigative activity developed over the last year - under the direction of the Public Prosecutor's Offices of Milan and Cagliari with the coordination of the National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate - by the local Digos in synergy with the Service for the Countering of Extremism and Internal Terrorism of the Central Directorate of the Prevention Police - Ucigos.

The investigation allowed to collect numerous evidences on the belonging to the same criminal context and the virtual knowledge of the two subjects: circumstance that made the simultaneous execution of the precautionary measures appropriate.

In particular, it emerged that the eighteen-year-old from Cagliari arrested today is enrolled in Aast and within the connected supremacist terrorist association “The Base”, linked to the international program “White Suprematist Extremism”, whose primary objective is the commission of acts of violence for the purposes of terrorism and subversion for reasons of racial hatred.

His violent nature had already manifested itself as a minor: in 2022 he had been subjected to a search by the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office after having threatened a schoolmate with a knife, who had reprimanded him for having heard him praise Hitler.

Even after he came of age, he continued his racist behavior. But he committed further crimes, such as child pornography, computer extortion in the subspecies of "sextortion", digital identity theft for extortion purposes.

It has also been ascertained that the suspect maintains a dense network of virtual relationships with other Internet users, all orbiting around the supremacist galaxy, trying to gain credibility in these environments through the sharing of accelerationist propaganda content and by committing some crimes on the territory, which he subsequently sends to the administrators of the groups he frequents.

The eighteen-year-old had made himself available to implement the association program in Cagliari and in Italy, informing himself and training himself through the training courses provided by the organizations on the dedicated Telegram channels: he repeatedly searched the Internet for information on weapons such as pistols, tonfas, crossbows, tasers, deterrents and knuckledusters, comparing himself with other Internet users on how to obtain a gun.

But that's not all: he is also accused of attempted aggravated extortion, sexual violence and child pornography against various individuals. Among them a fifteen-year-old girl, from whom he asked for money by threatening to publish sexual images and videos of her on WhatsApp and forcing her to perform sexual acts online and, subsequently, to forward them on Telegram in a group chat.

As for the twenty-year-old Romanian, instead, recipient of the precautionary measure of the obligation to remain in residence, the complex investigation carried out by the Milan State Police has provided ample evidence of the full contiguity of the suspect with the Aast network, of whose channels he himself is the administrator and of which he was even appointed new leader, following the alleged arrest of the previous head of the group.

The twenty-year-old, using an evident skill as a video and photo editor and through the constant development of a complex network of social accounts, is actively involved in promoting the group through the creation and dissemination of propaganda content of a clear supremacist, National Socialist, anti-Semitic/negationist and pro-Russian nature, while at the same time inciting users to use weapons and homemade explosives - for the manufacture of which the group's administrators, with evident training purposes, disseminate numerous manuals - to be used to carry out criminal actions functional to achieving the goals of the association, and carrying out constant proselytism and recruitment activities for the group, identifying anonymous users to enlist as believers and soldiers of AAST with the aim of "employing" them both for low-impact actions - such as slashing tires - against the so-called "subhumans", non-whites, Muslims and enemies of the cause - and for more serious and structured criminal conduct.

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)

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