An alleged white supremacist and cult leader planned an attack in New York City that he said would be bigger than the murder of 77 people by a neo-Nazi at a Norwegian summer camp, authorities said.
A federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned a four-count indictment this week charging Georgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili, 21,with soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence in New York City.
Chkhikvishvili is the head of a group known as the Maniac Murder Cult, which he started as a teenager, according to the DOJ.
The group "adheres to a neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community and other groups it deems 'undesirables'" with the common goal of "challenging social order and governments via terrorism and violent acts that promote fear and chaos," according to a news release from the Department of Justice (DOJ) .
The group's manifesto is called the "Hater's Handbook" and it "encourages its readers to commit school shootings and to use children to perpetrate suicide bombings and other mass killings targeting racial minorities," according to the DOJ.
In September of 2023, an undercover FBI agent managed to infiltrate the group after reaching out toChkhikvishvili, who said that in order to join the group, the agent would be required to provide a "brutal beating, arson/explosion or murder vids on camera," according to the DOJ.
Two months later, Chkhikvishvili shared with the undercover agent the details of a mass casualty targeting New York City children which he said would be a "bigger action than Breivik," the DOJ said. That is a reference toAnders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian Neo-Nazi who in 2011 carried out a bombing and mass shooting which left 77 people dead, 69 of whom were attending the Workers' Youth League summer campat the time on the island of Utøya.
"The scheme involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison to racial minorities and children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn. Chkhikvishvili drafted step-by-step instructions to carry out the scheme and shared with the [FBI agent] detailed manuals on creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases. He also instructed the UC on methods of making ricin-based poisons in powder and liquid form, including by extracting ricin from castor beans," says the DOJ.
That plot was scheduled for New Year's Eve, and just one of the many thought up byChkhikvishvili, according to the DOJ.
"Chkhikvishvili solicited the [FBI agent] to commit violent crimes, such as bombings and arsons, for the purpose of harming racial minorities, Jewish individuals and others. Chkhikvishvili provided detailed plans and materials such as bomb-making instructions and guidance on making Molotov cocktails to facilitate his desire for the UC to carry out these crimes," says the DOJ.
Authorities say thatChkhikvishvili also bragged of committing hate crimes while staying with his grandmother in Brooklyn back in 2022.
If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces a maximum penalty20 years for solicitation of violent felonies, five years for conspiring to solicit violent felonies, 20 years for distributing information pertaining to the making and use of explosive devices and five years for transmitting threatening communications, or a total of 50 years in prison .
The FBI is continuing to investigate this case. Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Moldova on July 6.
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