British authorities on Tuesday arrested four men they say were part of a terror cell aligned with a banned neo-Nazi movement.
The four men, ages 22, 24, 24, and 32, are all active members of the British military, UK media outlets have reported.
A Defence Ministry official confirmed the arrests of the four soldiers were terror-related.
“We can confirm that a number of serving members of the Army have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for being associated with a proscribed far-right group.
The four suspects are allegedly members of the National Action organization, a fringe nationalist group banned by the British government last December for being “virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic”.
The group’s logo is an adaptation of the insignia used by the infamous Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA).
“National Action is a racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organization which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology, and I will not stand for it,” Home Secretary Amber Rudd said at the time of the group’s banning.
“It has absolutely no place in a Britain that works for everyone.”
The group gained notoriety last year after it endorsed the murder of a Labour MP at the hands of a white supremacist.
Police in West Midlands said the four suspects were nabbed for plotting “acts of terrorism”, The Telegraph reported.
The suspects “”have been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000,” a police spokesperson said, “namely on suspicion of being a member of a proscribed organisation (National Action) contrary to sec 11 of the Terrorism Act.”
The arrest of the four suspects Tuesday is part of a larger counter-terror effort across the West Midlands, East Midlands, and Wales.
