The authorities this week carried out a major operation in the Centre-du-Québec region to search properties linked to a neo-Nazi cell.
With our correspondent in Montreal, Camille Feireisen
It was Thursday afternoon in the small and usually quiet municipalities of Saint-Ferdinand and Plessisville in Centre-du-Québec.
About sixty investigators from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, dog handlers, the tactical intervention group carried out searches in two properties which would be linked to a neo-Nazi extremist network, called Atomwaffen Division.
This small group, founded in the United States in 2015, has been on the list of terrorist entities since 2021 in Canada. The neo-Nazi network calls for violence against ethnic and religious groups and also targets informants, police and bureaucrats.
The investigation into this network began two years ago. There has been no arrest for the moment, but the police intervention lasted several hours and other searches are to come, according to the authorities.
The operation is part of the national security criminal investigation program.
The Atomwaffen Division has previously held training camps, also known as “hate camps”, and some of its members have carried out violent acts at public gatherings, including one in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA), in August 2017.