'Planning to hunt Jews during football match': Four neo-Nazis arrested in France

Prosecutor Edwige Roux-Morizot announced on Friday that four neo-Nazi males in the Alsace area of France had been charged with owning and trafficking a "amazing" number of firearms intended for use against Jews.

The men, aged 45 to 53, were members of far-right neo-Nazi organisations and had planned to "hunt Jews" during a soccer match in Strasbourg, according to Roux-Morizot.

During the arrest, she added, French police recovered 18 legal and 23 illicit guns, as well as 120,000 bullets and neo-Nazi literature.

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In response to an upsurge in antisemitic occurrences in recent years, France has increased its monitoring of far-right extremists, with President Emmanuel Macron visiting a destroyed Jewish cemetery in Alsace in December 2019.

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Investigators have not yet established whether the guys were plotting an assault, but antisemitic and Holocaust-denial publications have been discovered, and computer equipment is being examined, according to Roux-Morizot.

They also uncovered bullet-making equipment as well as more than 25,000 euros ($26,800) in cash.

The suspects have been charged with trafficking in guns and could face up to ten years in jail if convicted.

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