This archive report was first published on 17 July 2019.
On July 17, 2019, Italian police seized a cache of military-grade weapons and Nazi paraphernalia from three men, including a former political candidate for the extreme right party Forza Nuova.
Among the seized items were an air-to-air missile, nine war rifles, a Scorpion war machine gun, seven other guns, three hunting rifles, 20 bayonets, 306 firearm parts, and 831 pieces of ammunition.
The investigation, which began in July 2019, was sparked by the discovery of Italians with extremist ideology who had fought alongside Russian-backed separatist forces in Donbass, eastern Ukraine.
Police used phone and data interception to track down the suspects, who were arrested for allegedly possessing and trying to sell the air-to-air missile.
The Forza Nuova party has denied any current connection with the arrested man, Fabio Del Bergiolo, who ran for the Italian Senate in 2001 as a candidate for the party.
Del Bergiolo's lawyer claimed that his client is a 'weapons enthusiast' and that the seized items were not connected to terrorism.
