Police dismantle first white supremacist terrorist cell in Spain

The National Police have arrested three people in the province of Castellón who are linked to the "terrorist organisation" known as 'The Base', a new international network made up of "paramilitary cells", which "train in camps with the ultimate aim of perpetrating attacks", according to the ministry of interior. This is the first police strike in Spanish criminal history against a white supremacist terrorist group.

The police maintain that this cell, after having been trained, was ready to commit terrorist attacks on national territory. Among their possible targets, those arrested speculated about attacks on politicians, police officers, immigrants, members of the Jewish and Muslim community, activists from anti-fascist groups and members of the LGBT+ community.

The leader of the cell, who was captured on Tuesday last week, has now been remanded in prison. Judge Antonio Piña has charged him and his two alleged followers with membership of a terrorist organisation, recruitment, indoctrination and training for terrorist purposes, as well as illegal possession of weapons.

During the five searches carried out in the province of Castellón, nine weapons were seized, two of them firearms, ammunition, more than twenty bladed weapons and "complete military tactical equipment" used in training activities. The police also discovered supremacist material and documentation, propaganda for 'The Base', neo-Nazi paraphernalia, as well as documentation praising other terrorist organisations.

The investigation - as reported this week by the ministry of interior - began in early 2025, when officers specialising in the fight against terrorism and radicalism from the general intelligence police headquarters (CGI) identified a highly radicalised individual aligned with the terrorist supremacist ideology of ‘The Base’.

This organisation was created in July 2018 by American Rinaldo Nazzaro (known by the aliases 'Norman Spear' and 'Roman Wolf'), who today lives in Russia. This collective is considered terrorist in the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Essentially, it is a "racially motivated" violent extremist group that seeks to "incite a race war to establish a white ethno-state".

The Base', which also has strong anti-Semitic roots, operates as a 'decentralised and clandestine network' of small operational cells, whose main ideological tenets are supremacism, militant accelerationism and preparation for a 'race war'. According to the most radical version of this accelerationism, widely followed by neo-Nazi groups, especially in the USA, a "social revolution" is necessary to move towards a "post-capitalist society" controlled by the Aryan race. And to bring about these changes, all methods, including terrorist ones, are lawful.

His dream is the creation of pure white racial states along the lines of 'White Cascadia' (a vast area between the states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and western Montana in the United States, as well as parts of western Canada), with a predominantly Caucasian population and white cultural roots.

During the investigation into the links of 'The Base' in Spain, the CGI officers discovered that there was already a "cohesive cell", made up of three people. All of them were "highly radicalised, basing their lifestyle on the postulates of the terrorist organisation, and ready to carry out attacks", stressed the National Police. The police said that the three arrested had already undergone "several tactical training sessions using paramilitary techniques and material".

The officers were also able to verify how the detainees used social networks to recruit new militants, glorify violent actions of other terrorist organisations and "share audiovisual content of an accelerationist nature with other users".

"In recent months, the detainees had hardened their radical discourse, encouraging violent actions, even openly stating that they were willing to carry out targeted attacks for the cause," according to the police.

Moreover, the leader of the Spanish cell was in direct contact with Rinaldo Nazzaro himself, who a month ago called for the consolidation of cells expanded internationally and the execution of selective attacks in order to collapse Western democratic institutions.

This, together with the weapons stockpile observed, led to the officers launching a police operation in the early hours of Tuesday morning to arrest the leader and his two top collaborators.

The operation has been led by the general commission for intelligence with the support of the provincial information brigade of Castellón, all under the direction of the national high court prosecutor's office. Europol officers participated in the information analysis phase carried out during the investigation.