Giorgia Meloni ‘murder plot’ foiled: police arrest twelve neo-Nazis who ‘planned to shoot the Italian prime minister in the head from a hotel room and thus spark a civil war’
Italian police have arrested 12 neo-Nazis accused of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to spark a civil war and overthrow the government, local media reported.
The “Werewolf Division,” a group operating on Telegram, sought to establish an authoritarian regime “centered on the Aryan race” and planned violent attacks on high-ranking officials to achieve this, police said.
Raids against the group took place across the country on Wednesday, with a total of 25 houses searched and police 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 in Rome.
“There is a hotel in front of Parliament – is one of the intercepted conversations – from there you can take pictures from above,” one of them reportedly said in the chilling correspondence. “I’ll shoot her in the head,” said another.
The suspects are said to have called the politician of the Brothers of Italy a “concubine of Zion”, “a fascist until she came to power”, who “now denies being one” and “persecutes fascists”, as well as a “traitor” .
Anti-terror police said the group was already at an advanced stage of operational readiness and capable of carrying out attacks at the time of the raids.
Another secretive Telegram group called Movimento Nuova Alba was created to discuss the group’s most violent projects and train its “warriors.” According to investigators, in-person meetings took place to discuss the plans.
Emblems of the ne0-Nazi ‘Werewolf Division’ shared on their Telegram channel
On a suspect’s bedroom wall hangs an Italian flag on which fascist dictator Benito Mussolini gives the Roman salute
The police raid revealed zombie knives in one of more than 20 properties they searched
Videos of the raids on properties linked to the group show piles of army uniforms
Members of the group allegedly planned to shoot Giorgia Meloni in the head as she left parliament
The ‘division’ was reportedly led by three key figures: Daniele Trevisani, said to be the ideological leader, Andrea Ziosi, who was said to handle communications and liaison with the cells in other countries, and Salvatore Nicotra, said to be known as ‘the instructor.’
According to documents seen by La Repubblica, he was “tasked with recruiting and training militarily the members of the association, whom they called ‘comrades’.”
They are said to have established relationships with jihadist groups, sharing methods and combat techniques to achieve their common goals of ‘collapse the system’.
The members, spread across the country, were said to be fixated on their trip to Rome to ‘punish’ Meloni, proudly declaring that they were training for the attack, La Repubblica reports.
They reportedly searched for weapons on the Internet and visited shooting ranges to practice shooting weapons.
They are also accused of recruiting minors via the internet to take part in the violence, saying that “the forces need to grow.”
“Look at my daughter who has learned the Roman greeting,” one member of the group writes, attaching the photo of a newborn baby with his arm raised. ‘Great! Aryan baby’.
They are said to have shared their racist and anti-Semitic views online, denied the Holocaust and made vile statements such as ‘a white man is worth three blacks’.
Fascist insignia was scattered around one of the properties, according to a video released by state police
According to police, knives were found during the raids, but no firearms or explosives
Stacks of Nazi propaganda books were found in the bedroom of one suspect
The Werewolf Division, an apparent offshoot of the group, takes its name from a Nazi militia formed after World War II
Videos of the raids on properties linked to the group show piles of army uniforms, stockpiles of hunting and zombie knives and stacks of Nazi propaganda books.
Fortunately, the police found no firearms or explosives during the raids.
On the bedroom wall of one of the suspects hangs an Italian flag on which the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini gives the Roman salute, with the words ‘duce ‘d’Italia’ written next to him.
Police tracked down the network thanks to evidence obtained during an earlier investigation into a sister organization called ‘The Order of Hagal’.
The group, which was disbanded by authorities in 2022, had also made detailed plans to overthrow the Italian government by force, declaring it would form “armies” to “eliminate the politicians” in a surprise attack.
An apparent offshoot of the group, the Werewolf Division takes its name from a Nazi militia formed after World War II that sought to conduct sabotage and guerrilla warfare against Allied forces.