West Midlands Police have arrested four members of the proscribed Neo-Nazi group National Action.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that those arrested are members of the Army, reports Sky News.
National Action was banned by Home Secretary Amber Rudd in December 2016, meaning that to be a member or to invite support for the organisation is a criminal offence carrying a sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Police confirmed the men being held are a 22-year-old from Birmingham, a 24-year-old from Ipswich, a 24-year-old from Northampton, and a 32-year-old-man from Powys, Wales.
They were arrested “on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000; namely on suspicion of being a member of a proscribed organisation (National Action) contrary to sec 11 of the Terrorism Act”.
The arrests were carried out by counter-terrorism officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit in conjunction with the Wales Extremism Counter Terrorism Unit and the East Midlands CTIU, in an “intelligence-led” operation and there was no immediate threat of danger to public safety.
Neo Nazi ‘National Action’ Will be Proscribed by the British Govt https://t.co/E0IO2JpX2O pic.twitter.com/NePIfwkQ35
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 13, 2016
An Army spokesman said: “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.
“These arrests are the consequence of a Home Office Police Force led operation supported by the Army. This is now the subject of a civilian police investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The proscription of National Action was billed as the first “right wing” group to be banned in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000.
National Action joined a list of around 70 terrorist groups which are mostly linked to international radical Islamist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda, although Lebanese-based terror-group Hezbollah is yet to be banned in its entirety by the UK government.
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