UK/Spain: RTF and B&H organisers arrested
01 March 2005
In April Spanish police officers arrested the founder of the Racial Volunteer Force (RVF), Mark Atkinson, in Benalmadena (Malaga) Spain. Atkinson's detention followed the arrests of five men and a women from the organisation in the UK in January in relation to material published on the RVF's website and their magazine
Stormer. Spanish police also arrested members of the Blood and Honour organisation within days of Atkinson's arrest. The RVF is an offshoot from Combat 18 (C18) which collapsed after internal feuding in 1997-1998 that saw one of their founding members, Charlie Sargent, jailed for murder. Long-standing rumours that Sargent was a police informer were confirmed at his trial leading to a haemorrhaging of support and the destruction of C18's credibility among the wider fascist movement.
Infighting in the rump organisation between Sargent's former partner, Will Browning, and Atkinson saw defections to the British National Party and the growth of the moribund Blood and Honour (B&H) music scene. It also led to the creation of the RVF, which is linked to C18 but remains independent of it. Some sources have also linked the RVF with Northern Ireland's paramilitary Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). Members of the RVF are said to have helped settle LVF members, in the northern town of Bolton after they were driven out of Belfast in a territorial dispute over illegal drugs.
Atkinson was arrested in the Spanish resort town 18 months after jumping bail in the UK on charges of publishing or distributing material intended or likely to stir up racial hatred. The charges in the UK relate to the RVF's magazine
Stormer allegedly incited violence against Black, Jewish and Muslim people living in the UK. Atkinson now faces extradition back to Britain. Five men and a woman have been arrested on related charges in a national police operation (Operation Attend) involving six forces in Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Surrey, London, Merseyside and Manchester. Those arrested are: Elizabeth Hunt (36, from Merseyside), Nigel Piggins (39, Hull), Jonathan Hill (33, Oldham), Steven Bostock (27, Manchester), Michael Denis (30, South London) and Kevin Quinn (40, Bedford). They are accused of conspiracy to publish material intended to stir up racial hatred.
Also in April a nationwide operation by the
Guardia Civil (Spain's paramilitary police force) against members of the neo-nazi Blood and Honour group led to 21 arrests in Madrid, Seville, Jaén, Burgos and Zaragoza. Nineteen houses and a meeting centre were searched resulting in the confiscation of weapons, including two guns, ammunition and knives, as well as neo-nazi paraphernalia. The arrested face possible charges of crimes against fundamental rights and liberties,
apología of genocide, possession and sale of weapons and of forming an illegal association.
El País, 26.4.05