Salerno and Turin, supremacist radicalism: house arrest for two minors

Italian State Police operation against online radicalism in Europe. In recent months, the Italian State Police participated in an international operation against white supremacist and neo-Nazi online radicalism. Coordinated by Eurojust and Europol, the operation dismantled a network of internet users called "Sturmjager Division," active in six European countries.

The investigation, conducted in Italy by the DIGOS (Italian Special Operations Unit) of Turin and Salerno in recent weeks, together with the cybersecurity operations centers of Turin and Naples, led to the seizure of extremist material, such as manuals for attacks and sabotage on critical infrastructure, instructions for manufacturing weapons, and anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and Nazi-apologizing content.

The network's chats were characterized by violent symbolism such as the swastika, the "skull mask" and the "black sun".

As a result, the juvenile courts of Salerno and Turin issued two precautionary measures of "remain at home" for the young people under investigation.

In this virtual context, as reported by a police statement, Internet users have demonstrated a tendency towards hatred, even showing themselves willing to commit crimes in the name of their professed ideologies and to target Jews, Muslims and anyone considered to be of an "inferior race", fueling a real "cult" towards supremacists who have been responsible for serious terrorist attacks, such as the massacre in Utoya (Norway) in 2011 and that of Christchurch (New Zealand) in 2019.

In Italy, the investigative activity of the Digos (Italian Special Operations Division) and the Postal Police led to the searches of two minors, who were initially involved in the network and subsequently left to join another Telegram group with the same ideological background.

During further investigations, new evidence emerged indicating the concrete danger of their propaganda, their "obsession" with white supremacist attacks, their "annoyance" towards immigrants, and their aversion to Jews.