By Dennis Romero -
NBC News
A former US Army soldier was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison, the maximum sentence, for planning what prosecutors described as a "murderous ambush" abroad against members of his own ranks.
Eric Melzer, a 24-year-old from Kentucky, shared critical information about the location and makeup of a US military installation with the Order of Nine Angles, an anti-government neo-Nazi organization.
Melzer was arrested in June 2020 and pleaded guilty in 2022.
[A polygamous leader in Arizona had more than 20 "wives," including girls, according to the FBI]
Federal prosecutors alleged that Melzer intended to launch a jihadist terrorist attack against his own unit or any other occupying his location in order to undermine the United States abroad and further the goals of the order, which is an organization headquartered in in the UK and has sympathized with Al Qaeda.
"Melzer allegedly attempted to orchestrate a murderous ambush against his own unit by illegally disclosing its location, strength and weaponry to a neo-Nazi, anarchist and white supremacist group," Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey said in a statement. Strauss.
And he added that his performance was motivated by racism.
Plácido Domingo speaks for the first time about the audios that link him to a sex trafficking network
Aug 23, 202201:20
Melzer was found guilty of attempted murder of members of the US military, supplying and attempted supply of material support to terrorists, and illegal transmission of national defense information.
"He is not the unrepentant monster that prosecutors and the court portray," Jonathan Marvinny, the defense attorney, said by email.
"He deserved punishment, but also the opportunity to show that he could do something positive with his life. Today's sentencing took away that opportunity."
[Children are rescued in a camp in Mexico belonging to Lev Tahor, the controversial Orthodox Jewish sect]
In 2022, Marvinny and two other lawyers from Melzer's defense team argued in a sentencing memorandum that he should receive 15 years, plus 10 years of supervised release.
The memo describes Melzer as a product of neglect, abuse and a troubled family who found himself "in the thrall of a bizarre satanic cult" and doubled down on his involvement when he was placed under COVID-19 confinement in 2020. on base, where he was "drinking to excess, spending too much time online."
Prosecutors said Melzer was involved with the group beginning in 2017 and joined the US Army the following year specifically to help the order "infiltrate its ranks," according to a Justice Department statement Friday.
Allison Mack, from 'Smallville', receives her sentence: the actress will go to prison
June 30, 202101:15
In 2019, he deployed to Italy as a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, prosecutors said.
It was then that Melzer expanded his contact with extremist content, consuming Islamic State propaganda.
"Melzer subscribed to encrypted online forums where he downloaded and accessed videos of jihadist attacks on US troops and facilities and jihadist executions of civilians and soldiers," the Justice Department said.
[Two Hollywood stars are accused of rape. But the Church of Scientology is also on trial]
He learned in 2020 that his unit would help police a sensitive overseas military installation, and he passed information on location, hours and security to a subgroup of the order known as the "RapeWaffen Division," prosecutors said.
Melzer and the organization also passed that information on to a suspected al Qaeda member in order to "maximize" the chances of an attack against his unit or future units at the location, the Justice Department said Friday.
"Defendant believed that he could force the United States into a protracted armed conflict by killing as many soldiers as possible," the Justice Department said in an earlier statement.
Community where a religious sect murdered 7 people is deserted
Jan 21, 202002:32
The plot was foiled in 2020 by the US military and the FBI, according to prosecutors.
The Order of Nine Angles has had active members in Britain, the United States, Italy, Brazil and New Zealand for several decades and has promoted terrorism, sexual violence, polarisation, separatism and racial hatred, according to the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right, based in the UK.
["God was not among those present." The ceremony of this sect hidden in the jungle ended the life of the one who loved the most]
In more recent years, the group has become a source of inspiration for violent white supremacists in the United States, Brian Levin, a terrorism expert at California State University San Bernardino, declared in 2020.
His "glorification of violence and mysticism has found a renewed international audience," he said.
