(JTA) – Four people connected with the Italian version of the U.S.-based, white-supremacist website Stormfront were arrested.
Italian police arrested the four, considered key organizers of the website, on charges of inciting racial and ethic hatred and anti-Semitism. They were picked up in Milan in northern Italy; Frosinone, near Rome; and Pescara, on the Adriatic Coast.
Police also blocked the Stormfront site.
Also Friday, police raided the homes of 17 other Italians following an investigation of more than a year that was launched after Stormfront posted “blacklists” targeting prominent Jews. Police confiscated fascist and neo-Nazi propaganda material, including banners, pins and other objects bearing swastikas, as well as knives, baseball bats and other objects that could be used as weapons.
The Italian media reported that lists of possible targets of violent attacks were found, including Roma (Gypsy) camps in northern Italy. Rome Police Chief Fulvio Della Rocca said the arrests had “averted more serious problems.”
