About 60 RCMP agents are raiding southwest Quebec City, targeting people linked to the neo-Nazi group in the Atomwaffen Division.
“It’s a far-right affiliated group, which could be described as neo-Nazi loyalty,” the RCMP corporal said. said Charles Poirier.
Poirier said two search warrants were being carried out in the cities of Saint-Ferdinand and Plessisville in what he called a “national security operation.”
Poirier said there were no threats to the general public and no arrests were planned.
“But they could come based on what we can find. Investigators will be at the site for several hours,” Poirier said.
He said this is the culmination of an investigation that began in 2020.
Poirier said a command center has been set up next to a church and RCMP officers are searching a house behind the church.
An emergency response team, an armored vehicle, police dogs and Sûreté du Québec police officers are collaborating in the search.
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 argues that the story will end in a racial war.
The U.S.-based Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as “organized as a series of terrorist cells working toward the collapse of civilization.”
Last month, the RCMP arrested a 19-year-old man from Windsor, Ontario, for alleged links to the group.