About 60 RCMP officers are conducting raids southwest of Quebec, targeting people associated with the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division.
“It’s a far-right affiliated group that can be described as neo-Nazi.” Charles Poirier said.
Poirier said two search warrants were being executed in the cities of Saint-Ferdinand and Plessisville in what he called a “national security operation.”
Poirier said there was no threat to the general public and no arrests were expected.
“But they may appear depending on what we can find. Investigators will be on site within a few hours,” Porrier said.
According to him, this is the culmination of an investigation launched in 2020.
Poirier said a command center had been set up near the church and RCMP officers were searching the house behind the church.
The search is assisted by an emergency response team, an armored personnel carrier, police dogs and Sûreté du Québec police officers.
Atomwaffen Division is a neo-Nazi group founded in the United States in 2013. The group claims to be inspired by serial killer Charles Manson and claims the story will end in a race war.
The US-based Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as “organized as a series of terrorist cells that work to bring civilization down.”
Last month, the RCMP arrested a 19-year-old man from Windsor, Ontario, on suspicion of having links with the group.