A neo-Nazi cult leader has pleaded guilty to the charges of plotting a terrorist attack and trying to recruit others to commit violent attacks against Jews and racial minorities. The sinister plan also involved a plot of handing out poisoned candy to Jewish children in New York by an individual dressed as Santa Claus on New Year’s Eve. Federal prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of up to 18 years for 22-year-old Michail Chkhikvishvili, who hails from the Republic of Georgia and goes by the nickname “Commander Butcher.” On Monday, before a federal judge in Brooklyn, he pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes and distributing information about making bombs and ricin.
Prosecutors described Chkhikvishvili as the leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, an international extremist group that promotes violence to trigger a racial and religious war.
They said the extremist group’s violent solicitations were promoted through Telegram channels and outlined a manifesto called the ‘Hater’s Handbook’. The group appears to have inspired many real-life killings, including a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this year that left a 16-year-old student dead.
Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Moldova in July 2024 and extradited to the United States in May this year.
Chkhikvishvili travelled on multiple occasions to Brooklyn, where he bragged about beating up an elderly Jewish man and instructed others to commit violent acts on behalf of the Maniac Murder Cult, said prosecutors.
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When an undercover FBI agent approached Chkhikvishvili in 2023, he recruited him to various plots, including one that involved dressing up as Santa Claus and giving poisoned candy to racial minorities but later evolved into poisoning children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors said in a court filing that when Chkhikvishvili described his desire to carry out a mass casualty attack in the US, he said he saw the country as having “big potential” because of easy access to firearms. Prosecutors said he suggested targeting homeless people because the government wouldn’t care “even if they die.”
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