55 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
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tags:
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- Person
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- FeuerkriegDivision
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- O9A
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- NeoNazi
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- Accelerationism
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- UK
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- Wales
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- TerroristConviction
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- CSAM
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- UKTerrorism
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born: 2002
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location: "Cardiff, Wales"
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created: 2026-05-22
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updated: 2026-05-22
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summary: "Luca Benincasa was a Cardiff neo-Nazi sentenced to nine years and three months at Winchester Crown Court in January 2023, becoming the first person convicted under the UK proscription of Feuerkrieg Division for membership in a proscribed organization and possession of bomb-making materials."
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---
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Luca Benincasa, 20, of [[Cardiff]], specifically the [[Whitchurch, Cardiff|Whitchurch]] area, was the first person convicted in the United Kingdom of belonging to [[Feuerkrieg Division]] following its proscription under [[The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2020]] (SI 2020/743) on 17 July 2020. He pleaded guilty at [[Winchester Crown Court]] on 15 July 2022 and was sentenced on 26 January 2023 by Judge [[Jane Miller KC]] to nine years and three months in a young offenders institution.[^1]
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### Arrest and Searches
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Counter-terrorism police raided both of Benincasa's separated parents' respective homes in [[Cardiff]] in January 2022. The searches produced a tactical vest, camouflage clothing, an [[SS]] officer's dagger and hat, a Nazi Party armband, masks, and a large quantity of white supremacist literature. Additionally, his digital devices contained bomb-making instructions and other material classified as information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.[^1]
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Benincasa had served as a recruiter and described himself as a "prominent member" of FKD. He was identified as a key figure in FKD's UK operations in the period after the organization's reconstitution on [[Telegram]] in May 2021.
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### Charges and Plea
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At Winchester Crown Court, Benincasa entered guilty pleas to:
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- one count of membership of a proscribed organization (the Feuerkrieg Division, proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000)
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- four counts of collecting or possessing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism (Terrorism Act 2000, s. 58), covering bomb-making instructions, on or before 1 February 2022
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In a subsequent hearing, he also pleaded guilty to:
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- three counts of possessing indecent images of children (ages 4 to 7)
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- one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image
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- one count of possessing a prohibited image of a child
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The CSAM and terrorism charges were prosecuted together, following the pattern documented in multiple [[764 Network|764]] and FKD cases in which CSAM possession coincides with and reinforces violent accelerationist activity.[^2]
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### Sentence
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Judge Miller KC imposed a total sentence of nine years and three months: five years and seven months for the terrorism offences, a consecutive eight months for the CSAM offences, plus a three-year extended licence on the terrorism counts. The sentence was to be served in a young offenders institution. Miller KC told Benincasa: "By 1st February 2022 you were calling yourself the UK cell leader of FKD and one of its recruiters," and concluded: "You were clearly a prominent member of the organisation." She described Benincasa as presenting a "serious risk" to the public.[^1]
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The nine-year sentence was the longest imposed on any FKD-connected defendant in the UK to that point, exceeding [[Luke Hunter]]'s four-year-and-two-month term (2020), the Cornwall teenager's 24-month rehabilitation order (2021), and [[Paul Dunleavy]]'s five-and-a-half-year term (2020).
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Press coverage of the case, including ITV News Wales and Tell MAMA reporting, described Benincasa as a "prominent ONA member." Whether the published sentencing remarks specifically use that language has not been independently verified from the primary text and constitutes an open thread.
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Tell MAMA UK. "Neo-Nazi Luca Benincasa jailed for terrorism offences and child abuse images." January 2023. https://tellmamauk.org/neo-nazi-luca-benincasa-jailed-for-terrorism-offences-and-child-abuse-images/; ITV News Wales. "Neo-Nazi, 20, from Cardiff jailed for being member of far-right terror group." January 26, 2023. https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2023-01-26/dangerous-neo-nazi-jailed-for-being-a-member-of-far-right-terror-group; Nation.cymru. "Cardiff man becomes first person convicted of belonging to neo-Nazi Feuerkrieg Division." https://nation.cymru/news/cardiff-man-becomes-first-person-convicted-of-belonging-to-neo-nazi-feuerkrieg-division/
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[^2]: Counter Extremism Project. "Feuerkrieg Division." https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/feuerkrieg-division
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