Dimitris Kouimtsidis
NINE members of a neo-Nazi group in Andalucia have been arrested by the Guardia Civil.
The self-styled Antas Klan is a group of neo-Nazis that exists in the Antas municipality of Almeria.
They were created to ‘take control of the situation’ with the objective to harass and attack the Islamic community of Almeria.
They plagued the streets of the province with both physical and verbal attacks, such as anti-Muslim grafitti on buildings.
The nine members who were arrested, including the group’s leader, are between the ages of 18 and 28, financing their activities through drug sales.
They are charged with crimes of incitement for hatred and violence against a minority, for reasons of a racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic nature, for membership in a criminal group, illicit association and for drug trafficking.
The arrests were made as part of the Malachite operation, which began with the arrest of six people in late 2015 for vandalism, two of them minors.
After these arrests, the investigators found out about the existence of a youthful neo-Nazi group that was directly related to a series of violent actions.
In July last year they carried out one of their biggest acts of racism by spray painting facist slogans on buildings throughout the town of Antas.
They also painted an ‘official statement’ in which they proclaimed their intent to ‘take control’ of the municipality, accusing the authorities of not acting in time to stop ‘50 robberies’ and other crimes that they attributed to Muslims.
