National Action: How chilling neo-Nazi terror ring was smashed
They are a ‘virulently racist’ neo-Nazi terrorist group that wants to kill Muslims and set up all white enclaves across the UK.
National Action (NA) – the first far-Right group to be banned and placed on the Government’s blacklist under the Terrorism Act – have indoctrinated vulnerable youngsters over the internet in an effort to turn them into terrorists.
Now the Midlands arm of the group – believed to be one of the country’s most active – has been smashed following a two-year police investigation which has seen around 20 racists hauled before the courts.
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It comes amid warnings from counter terrorism police of the rising threat posed by the far right, which they say has moved from putting up stickers outside universities to committing and promoting racially motivated attacks.
On Monday at Birmingham Crown Court six people were convicted for being members of the group, which the Home Office described as ‘virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic’ when it proscribed it in December 2016.
They included Darren Fletcher, 28, of Kitchen Lane, Wednesfield, who had admitted membership of NA as well as five breaches of his criminal anti-social behaviour order.
IT worker Joel Wilmore, who worked in West Bromwich, had also admitted membership.
Security guard Adam Thomas, 22, a self-confessed racist who was brought up in Birmingham and gave his baby son the middle name ‘Adolf’ to reflect his ‘admiration’ for Hitler, was found guilty by a jury of membership of the banned group.
His 38-year-old partner Claudia Patatas was also found guilty.
Police photos show the couple proudly posing for a photo with friend Darren Fletcher and a Nazi flag.
Chilling pictures also show an array of deadly weapons allegedly found hidden under beds and in other places around the couple’s home which was adorned with Far Right flags and other decor.
Another unsettling police picture allegedly shows Thomas posing with a machete wearing a KKK robe and hood.
Another member, 24-year-old Alexander Deakin, of Beacon Road in Walsall, had already been jailed for eight years back in April after being told by a judge he was ‘deeply committed to the most extreme racist views’.
The unemployed student was arrested while cowering in an airing cupboard after bragging that 'incompetent' counter-terrorism officers would never catch up with him.
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His role as Midlands regional organiser and senior National Action member was uncovered when he was caught on CCTV, along with others, putting up racially offensive stickers on Aston University campus.
Details of his case, and that of British Army veteran Mikko Vehvilainen, who was also jailed for eight years, were subject to reporting restrictions but can now be revealed.
White supremacist and self-confessed racist Corporal Vehvilainen, 34, believed in a coming 'race war' and wanted to help establish an all-white stronghold in Llansilin, a village in Wales just over the border from Oswestry.
Chief Superintendent Matt Ward, West Midlands Police lead for counter terrorism, has today lifted the lid on the probe that brought down the Midlands arm of NA.
WATCH: Ch Supt Matt Ward reveals more on investigation
He said the force launched a ‘painstaking’ two-year investigation that was sparked by racist stickers appearing at university campuses and colleges across the region.
These incidents were initially probed as race hate crimes prior to late 2016, but once NA was banned, WMP launched a full investigation. It would eventually lead to the identification of a growing fascist network across the region.
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“We consider National Action to be a very dangerous organisation,” Ch Supt Ward said.
“Before December 2016, they were involved in incidents around racial hatred, and supporting violence committed by others.
“Post proscription, they have continued in a much more discrete way, using encrypted apps to communicate. They are sophisticated, well organised, well led, neo-Nazi organisation who have a very clear ideology about trying to promote race wars in the UK.
"These are extremists who see vulnerable young people as blank canvases for them to push their own warped view of the world onto.
“They seek to recruit and radicalise school children, some as young as 14.
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“Their aim is to radicalise them into their way of thinking, and then to train them.
“This can involve downloading illegal material online that tells them how to make explosives, buying weapons online such as crossbows and machetes and promoting their ideology of trying to provoke attacks in the UK, which in their minds will eventually lead to a race war which will bring the white only enclaves they are seeking to establish.
“This is more than just racist behaviour – as abhorrent as that is – and it is more than just individual fantasists.
“These are individuals who in some instances have had access to military weaponry and training.
“Some are IT specialists. These are people who come together with lots of different skills to promote their strongly held beliefs and views that the UK set up is wrong.
“They are prepared to use violence to change that.” Ch Supt Ward said WMP had ‘dismantled and degraded’ NA in the Midlands, but warned against complacency.
“The ambitions and motivations of these people don’t go away,” he said.
“There will be individuals out there who still share the same views. This is not the end of the process, this is one step.”
He said: “The overwhelming majority of our time and effort is dealing with Islamist extremism, people being inspired by Al-Quaeda or Isis... seeking to travel out to Syria or Iraq, but the extreme right wing is a significant and growing threat.
“It is taking a lot of time and resources and effort, and as counter-terrorism policing we are committed to maintaining that.
“In recent months we are doing even more work with MI5. I have no doubt we will continue to see new groups forming.”
Daniel Bogunovic, aged 27, of Crown Hills Rise in Leicester was also found guilty - while Nathan Pryke, aged 27 of Dartford Road, Cambridge, had previously admitted his membership.
