The alleged leader of a violent neo-Nazi extremist group plotted to hand out poisoned candy to Jewish and minority children in New York City, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Georgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili, nicknamed “Commander Butcher,” was charged with soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn.
Chkhikvishvili allegedly led the “Maniac Murder Cult,” or MKY, an international white supremacist group that follows a “neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and other groups it deems ‘undesirables.’”
The group’s goal is to challenge social order and governments via terrorism and violent acts that promote fear and chaos, according to the DOJ.
Since July 2022, Chkhikvishvili is alleged to have repeatedly encouraged others to commit violent hate crimes and other acts of violence on behalf of MKY.
An undercover FBI employee messaged Chkhikvishvili in September 2023 asking whether there was an application process to join MKY, to which Chkhikvishvili reportedly responded, “Well, yes, we ask people for brutal beating, arson, explosion, or murder vids on camera.”
Beginning in November 2023, Chkhikvishvili allegedly solicited the undercover employee to commit violent crimes for the purpose of harming racial minorities and Jewish people.
Chkhikvishvili began plotting a mass casualty attack for New Year’s Eve that involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out poisoned candy to racial minorities in New York City. He gave the undercover FBI employee detailed instructions on creating and mixing lethal poisons, according to prosecutors.
Some of the materials Chkhikvishvili shared have been linked to radical Islamist jihadist groups and designated foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS, prosecutors said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“As alleged, the defendant sought to recruit others to commit violent attacks and killings in furtherance of his neo-Nazi ideologies,” Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. “His goal was to spread hatred, fear, and destruction by encouraging bombings, arson, and even poisoning children, for the purpose of harming racial minorities, the Jewish community, and homeless individuals.”
If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces up to 20 years in prison for solicitation of violent felonies, five years in prison for conspiring to solicit violent felonies, 20 years in prison for distributing information pertaining to the making and use of explosive devices, and five years in prison for transmitting threatening communications.
