Neo-Nazi ‘Maniac Murder Cult’ leader plotted NYC attack on minorities with poison candy-toting Santa, feds say
The leader of the neo-Nazi Maniac Murder Cult plotted a New Year’s Eve hate attack in which a goon dressed as Santa Claus would hand out poison-laced candy to minorities across New York City, federal authorities said Tuesday.
Georgian national Michail “Commander Butcher” Chkhikvishvili, 20, also planned a similar poison candy spree targeting Jewish school children in Brooklyn — and sent information on how to make bombs and ricin-based poisons using castor beans, feds said.
“Dead Jewish kids,” he messaged an undercover FBI agent, according to federal court records.
“MMC will become bigger than Al Qaeda once it drops,” he boasted about video he planned to publish after the attack.
But Chkhikvishvili’s alleged hateful Santa fantasies never came to fruition.
International authorities arrested Chkhikvishvili in Moldova July 6 on an Interpol warrant, said officials with the Eastern District US Attorney’s Office.
A federal grand jury in Brooklyn Monday indicted Chkhikvishvili on a solicitation of hate crime charge, among other felonies, after an FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force probe, records show.
“As alleged, the defendant sought to recruit others to commit violent attacks and killings in furtherance of his Neo-Nazi ideologies,” said US Attorney Breon Peace.
“His goal was to spread hatred, fear and destruction by encouraging bombings, arson and even poisoning children, for the purpose of harming racial minorities, the Jewish community and homeless individuals.”
A 22-page criminal complaint unsealed this week details 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.”
Chkhikvishvili, who lived with his grandmother in Brooklyn in 2022, published a manifesto called the “Hater’s Handbook” in which he proudly proclaimed he “murdered for white race (sic),” the complaint states.
He bragged to another, unnamed neo-Nazi leader that he tortured and tried to kill an elderly Jewish man, according to the complaint. The other leader matches the description of Nicholas Welker, 33, who headed the Feuerkrieg Division and was recently sentenced to 44 months in prison for making death threats against a Brooklyn journalist.
Records show Chkhikvishvili did work for a Brooklyn-based rehabilitation facility and was employed by an Orthodox Jewish family to care for a now-deceased man, the complaint states.
“I get paid to torture dying jew,” he bragged in a message, according to the complaint.
The complaint notes the feds aren’t accusing Chkhikvishvili of causing the man’s death.
An undercover FBI agent in 2023 posed as a potential recruit and began exchanging messages with Chkhikvishvili, who provided instructions for making bombs from fertilizer and committing arson “with no trace even nyc (sic),” according to the complaint.
Chkhikvishvili starting in November began prodding the undercover to commit an attack even bigger than that of Anders Brevik, a Norwegian neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in a 2011 bombing and mass shooting.
“In particular, Chkhikvishvili devised a scheme to murder racial minorities and others in New York City on New Year’s Eve by dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison,” according to the complaint, which includes step-by-step instruction sent from “Butcher.”
According to the complaint, Chkhikvishvili pushed the undercover to create ricin, a deadly poison that figured prominently into the plot of the TV series “Breaking Bad.”
When New Year’s Eve passed without a hate attack, Chkhikvishvili switched the plan to focus on poisoning children on “some Jewish holiday,” according to the complaint.
“In additional conversations, Chkhikvishvili stated that he was considering traveling to the United States, that it was a ‘good place for illegal grind,’ and that he was ‘[g]onna poison half of nyc,’ ‘bomb NYC,’ and ‘kill everyone there,” he messaged another person whom he later threatened to kill, the complaint states.
Chkhikvishvili faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
