UK: 5 suspected members of neo-Nazi group arrested

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

Five people have been arrested on suspicion of being members of a proscribed neo-Nazi group, National Action, British police said on Wednesday.

“Three men, a woman and a 17-year-old boy were detained following a series of arrests across the country,” a statement by the West Midlands Police said.

The arrests in Birmingham, Halifax and Nottingham came in a “pre-planned and intelligence-led” operation targeting the terror group, the statement added.

Founded in 2013, National Action was proscribed as a terror organization in December 2016.

The anti-Semitic and white supremacist group had celebrated the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in June 2016 by far-right extremist Thomas Mair.

The group describes itself as a "National Socialist youth organization". However, then-Home Secretary Amber Rudd had described it as “racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic”.

“It has absolutely no place in a Britain that works for everyone,” she had said.

A number of properties are being searched in connection with the arrests, police said.