March 31 (UPI) — An American neo-Nazi who was at a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017 was arrested in Romania Friday and will be extradited to the United States.
Robert Rundo, 33, co-founder of the Rise Above Movement, was arrested Friday at a Bucharest gym following a tip-off, Romanian police said, according to the BBC.
Rundo was indicted in 2018 for allegedly assaulting several people in the United States. The case was dismissed in 2019, but a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned a new indictment in January.
He is also suspected of promoting a white-supremacist ideology in the Balkans during the last three years.
“The suspect is said to be one of the founders of an organization that supports the ideology of white supremacy, which has publicly presented itself as a group ready to fight, campaigning for a new nationalist movement of white supremacy and identity,” a Romanian police statement said, according to Radio Free Europe.
Rundo is part of the Rise Above Moment, which describes itself as a “premier alt-right MMA [mixed martial arts] club.” Members of the movement participated in the violent and deadly Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
Videos also have showed Rundo punching counter-protesters in Huntington Beach, Calif., and a police officer in Berkeley, Calif., according to an FBI affidavit.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Rundo has tried to create a group dedicated to white supremacy in Eastern Europe.