Jan. 13 (UPI) — The United States named an online extreme right-wing group of White supremacists a designated terrorist organization on Monday, accusing it and its leaders of promoting race and ethnic-based violence.
Members of the transnational Terrorgram Collective connect via Telegram, hence its name, where they promote White supremacy and encourage racially or ethnically motivated violence.
Its users have been blamed for a number of violent attacks, including the October shooting outside a Slovakia LGBTQ+ bar that killed three people, including the gunman; a July planned attack on a New Jersey energy facility; and an August kift attack at a Turkey mosque that injured five.
“The Terrorgram Collective is being designated for having committed or attempted to commit, posing a significant risk of committing or having participated in training to commit acts of terrorism that threaten the security of United States nationals or the national security, foreign policy of economy of the United States,” the State Department said in a statement.
Three leaders of the collective — Ciro Daniel Amorim Ferreira of Brazil, Noah Licul of Croatia and Hedrik-Wahl Muller of South Africa — were individually listed as Specially Designated Global terrorists.
With the designations, all property and interests in property of the collective as well as those named in the United States is blocked and Americans are barred from doing business with them. According to State Department officials, the terrorist designations expose and isolate those named from using the U.S. financial system.
In September, two U.S.-based leaders of the collective — Dallas Humber of California and Matthew Allison of Idaho — were charged in a 15-count indictment for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and soliciting hate crimes and the murder of federal officials.
According to the indictment, the pair spread online video and publications that provided what federal prosecutors described as “specific advice” for carrying out crimes and a hit list for assassinations.
They are accused of inciting users, including those behind the Slovakia, New Jersey and Turkey attacks.
The collective was designated as a terrorist organization in Britain following approval from its Parliament in April. The order criminalizes being a member of the collective with a potential sentence of up to 14 years in prison.