A neo-Nazi known as “Commander Butcher” is extradited from Moldova to the US for planning mass casualty attacks against Jewish New Yorkers. Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 21-year-old Georgian national, was arrested in July 2024 and charged with soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence. Chkhikvishvili is a leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, an international, violent extremist group, the US Department of Justice says. Chkhikvishvili promotes neo-Nazi white supremacist ideology and instructed others to commit violence for ethnic cleansing, including an undercover FBI agent, leading to his arrest. Chkhikvishvili instructed the agent to use arson, explosives, poison and beatings against “low race targets,” including Jews. One of his schemes involved having an assailant dress up as Santa Claus and hand out poisoned candy to racial minorities. Earlier this year, Chkhikvishvili told the undercover agent to poison Jewish schools and Jewish children in Brooklyn. He sent the agent step-by-step instructions about creating poisons and gases.
via timesofisrael: Moldova extradites ‘Commander Butcher’ neo-Nazi to US for planning mass killings of New York Jews
siehe auch: Georgian ‘neo-Nazi’ accused of plotting hate crimes in NYC. Michail Chkhikvishvili targeted American children, the government says, and planned to have followers dress up as Santa Claus and hand out poison-laced candy to racial minorities. A 21-year-old man from the eastern European nation of Georgia recruited fellow white supremacists to carry out violent attacks, including a plot to poison children in New York City by dressing as Santa Claus, prosecutors said Friday following his extradition from Moldova. “The defendant is a neo-Nezi extremist leader who has spent years soliciting gruesome attacks from his followers,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Reich said at Michail Chkhikvishvili’s arraignment Friday morning. Over a period of two years Chkhikvishvili, a leader of the international extremist group Maniac Murder Cult, also known as “MKY,” rallied those who share his ideologies to attack racial minorities, Jewish people, the LGBTQ community and journalists, according to a government detention memo. A 17-year-old student acting on behalf of MKY and at least one other group killed one person and injured another before taking his own life at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, in January 2025, the memo says. The shooter’s manifesto mentioned Chkhikvishvili by name and included references to MKY founder Yegor Krasnov, whose name the shooter said he would write on his own gun. Chkhikvishvili, who calls himself “The Butcher,” distributed a manifesto called the “Hater’s Handbook” to MKY members and others, claiming he has “murdered for the white race” and encouraging others to commit violence and “ethnic cleansing” — specifically in the United States — via school shootings, using children to carry out suicide bombings, committing mass terror attacks and using vehicles to target festivals, parades and streets full of pedestrians. (…) In Telegram messages between the two, Chkhikvishvili told Welker he was working for an Orthodox Jewish family caring for a now-deceased family member in a rehabilitation facility. Chkhikvishvili sent Welker photographs of the patient in his hospital bed, the sentencing memo says, and bragged, “I get paid to torture dying jew // I think I almost killed him today actually // If he dies soon that’s killstrike on me.”; Georgian Man Extradited To US To Face Charges Related To Neo-Nazi ‘Murder Cult’. A Georgian national and alleged leader of a neo-Nazi group has been extradited from Moldova to the United States to face charges that he recruited people to commit violent crimes against Jews and other ethnic minorities in New York City, the US Justice Department said. Michail Chkhikvishvili, who goes by several aliases, including Commander Butcher and Mishka, was arraigned in federal court in New York on May 23 on multiple felonies. Prosecutors described Chkhikvishvili as a white supremacist who plotted the mass killing of children and others in minority communities using poison, suicide bombs, firearms, arson fires, and vehicle explosions. The 21-year-old from Tbilisi who was arrested last July in Moldova pleaded not guilty through his attorney, Samuel Gregory, who requested his client receive a psychiatric evaluation and be placed on suicide watch while in custody. Gregory did not return a message seeking comment, according to the Associated Press. Chkhikvishvili, described by prosecutors as the leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, recruited people, including on the Telegram messaging app, to commit violent acts to promote the group’s ideologies, including planning and soliciting a mass casualty attack in New York City, the Justice Department said in a news release. The Maniac Murder Cult, which also goes by several aliases, including Cult of Killing and MKY, is described as an “international racially motivated violent extremist group” that prosecutors said “adheres to a neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community and other groups it deems ‘undesirables.’” Prosecutors said the group’s activities inspired multiple attacks and killings around the world, including a school shooting this year in Nashville, Tennessee, that left a 16-year-old student dead. (…) Chkhikvishvili distributed a manifesto titled the Hater’s Handbook to members of the group in which he said he had “murdered for the white race,” according to the Justice Department. The handbook encourages and instructs others to commit acts of mass violence and “ethnic cleansing.” After traveling to Brooklyn, New York, in June 2022, Chkhikvishvili provided detailed plans and materials such as bomb-making instructions to a prospective member of the group who was in fact an undercover FBI employee; Neo-Nazi death cult leader arrested over plot to poison Jewish children with Christmas candy. The leader of an eastern European neo-Nazi group has been extradited to the US from Moldova to face charges of soliciting hate crimes after allegedly instructing an undercover agent to distribute poisoned candy to Jewish children while dressed as Santa Claus. Michail Chkhikvishvili, 21, originally from Georgia, was arraigned Friday in Brooklyn federal court on multiple felonies including soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence. He pleaded not guilty through his attorney, Samuel Gregory, who requested psychiatric evaluation and suicide watch for his client. Prosecutors identified Chkhikvishvili, also known as “Commander Butcher,” as leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, an international extremist group promoting neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and violence against racial minorities, Jewish communities and others deemed “undesirables.” The group’s solicitations, promoted through Telegram channels and a manifesto called the “Hater’s Handbook,” appear to have inspired multiple killings including a Nashville school shooting this year that killed a 16-year-old student, prosecutors said; Neo-Nazi cult leader who plotted NYC attack on minorities using Santa costume hauled to US for justice. The leader of the neo-Nazi “Maniac Murder Cult,” who plotted to attack New York City on New Year’s Eve using a goon dressed as Santa Claus, was hauled to the US to face charges — as the feds said his hateful screeds succeeded in radicalizing Americans into committing violence. Georgian national Michail “Commander Butcher” Chkhikvishvili, 21, inspired “multiple senseless killings” around the world, including the deadly Antioch High School shooting in January — where a radicalized ROTC cadet gunned down a 16-year-old teen girl in Nashville, according to a letter from the Justice Department Friday. Prosecutors said that the Nashville shooter, 17-year-old Solomon Henderson, had proclaimed in audio recordings before the attack that he was “taking action on behalf of MKY” and had explicitly mentioned Chkhikvishvili by name. The feds also said that Chkhikvishvili was connected to a Turkey knife attack where a crazed Turkish teen wearing Nazi paraphernalia livestreamed himself stabbing five outside a mosque in August 2024. Chkhikvishvili, who was arrested last year in Moldova, was extradited to the US on Thursday — and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday in Brooklyn Federal court on multiple felony counts, including solicitation of hate crime. In a 22-page criminal complaint, prosecutors detailed Chkhikvishvili’s role as a leader and recruiter within the “Maniac Murder Cult,” a Russia and Ukraine-based neo-Nazi group that promotes violence against racial minorities, Jewish people and other so-called “undesirables.”; Hate Crimes and Planning Mass Casualty Attack in New York City Friday, May 23, 2025 Share For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs Leader of White Supremacist Group ‘Maniac Murder Cult’ Recruited Others to Bomb and Poison the Jewish Community and Racial Minorities Defendant Allegedly Planned Scheme to Distribute Poisoned Candy on New Year’s Eve Georgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili, also known as Mishka, Michael, Commander Butcher, and Butcher, 21, of Tbilisi, was extradited to the United States from Moldova on May 22, and will be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn today. Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Chișinău, Moldova, in July 2024 in connection with a four-count indictment returned in the Eastern District of New York charging him with soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence in New York City. According to court documents, Chkhikvishvili is a leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, also known as Maniacs Murder Cult, Maniacs: Cult of Killing, MKY, MMC and MKU, an international racially-motivated violent extremist group. As alleged in the indictment, Chkhikvishvili recruited people to commit violent acts in furtherance of MKY’s ideologies, including planning and soliciting a mass casualty attack in New York City. “This case is a stark reminder of the kind of terrorism we face today: online networks plotting unspeakable acts of violence against children, families, and the Jewish community in pursuit of a depraved, extremist ideology,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “The Department of Justice will not tolerate hate-fueled violence, and we will pursue those who threaten innocent lives wherever they may be.”
