Neo-Nazi cult leader arrested for terror plot to dress up as Santa Claus and distribute poisoned candy to Jewish children in New York

The leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group has been charged with plotting to have one of his followers dress up as Santa Claus and distribute poisoned candy to Jewish children in New York.

Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 21-year-old man from the Republic of Georgia, was arrested following the dissemination of an Interpol wanted notice in Moldova on 6 July.

On Tuesday, a federal jury in Brooklyn indicted him on four counts, including solicitation of hate crimes and mass violence, following a joint FBI and New York state terrorism investigation.

“As alleged, the defendant sought to recruit others to commit violent attacks and murders in furtherance of his neo-Nazi ideologies,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.

“Its goal was to spread hatred, fear and destruction by encouraging bombings, arson and even the poisoning of children, with the aim of harming racial minorities, the Jewish community and the homeless.”

An Eastern European neo-Nazi leader has been charged with plotting to have one of his followers dress up as Santa Claus and distribute poisoned candy to Jewish children.

Prosecutors say Chkhikvishvili – known by the nicknames Michael, Mishka, Commander Butcher and Butcher – leads the Maniacs Murder Cult, an international extremist group based in Russia and Ukraine.

The group adheres to a “neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and encourages violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community and other groups it deems 'undesirable.'” federal prosecutors say.

Its goal is to disrupt social order and governments through terrorism and acts of violence that foster fear and chaos.

The group spread to the United States, and Chkhikvishvili was arrested after unknowingly trying to recruit an undercover FBI agent.

The undercover agent asked the cult leader in September 2024 if there was an application process to join the group, a criminal complaint says.

Chkhikvishvili reportedly replied: “Well yes, we ask people to film brutal beatings, arson/explosions or murders.”

He then went on to say that “poisoning and arson are [the] “The best options for murder” and suggested he consider “mass murder on a larger scale in the United States.”

Chkhikvishvili also suggested that the undercover cop choose “low-race targets.”

Michail Chkhikvishvili unknowingly sent information to a secret agent to carry out this scheme

In November, Chkhikvishvili reportedly began planning a “mass casualty event in New York on New Year's Eve.”

“The scheme involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and distributing poisoned candy to racial minorities and Jewish school children in Brooklyn,” prosecutors said.

He then wrote out step-by-step instructions on how to carry out the scheme, writing in a Nov. 2 letter that the undercover agent should use delivery services or pay cash to purchase the poisons and chocolate candies.

“After handing out poisoned candy to many racial minorities and traitors, go ahead. [a] “Taxi, pay to go somewhere where you will have alternative clothing… and burn Santa's clothes and equipment,” Chkhikvishvili allegedly wrote in the message.

Prosecutors say the neo-Nazi provided the undercover officer with, in addition to the message, manuals on how to create and mix poisons and gases.

He also allegedly instructed the undercover agent to specifically target the Jewish community, noting that “Jews are literally everywhere” in Brooklyn.

He advised the secret agent to hide some clothes and burn the Santa suit after distributing the poisoned candy.

It appears that Chkhikvishvili had high hopes for the plan, hoping that it would be a “bigger move than Breivik,” a reference to Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in a bombing and mass shooting in 2011.

“Once you launch the poison attack, I will send a message against the US government,” he allegedly wrote to the undercover agent in November, as he repeatedly asked for status updates.

“Once it falls, the MMC will become bigger than al-Qaeda.”

While New Year's Eve passed without any hate attacks, prosecutors said he changed plans to focus on poisoning children on a “Jewish holiday.”

Prosecutors say Chkhikvishvili leads the international extremist group Maniacs Murder Cult, based in Russia and Ukraine.

Prosecutors also say that since September 2021, Chkhikvishvili has been distributing a manifesto titled “Hater’s Handbook,” in which he declares that he has “killed for the white race” and is “ready to bring more chaos to this rotten world.”

“Our primary objective is to spread the flames of Lucifer and continue his message of ethnic cleansing, grand propaganda or purification,” the manual states, according to the criminal complaint.

Prosecutors say the book encouraged readers to commit school shootings and use children to carry out suicide bombings and other mass murders targeting racial minorities.

“The document describes methods and strategies for committing mass “terrorist attacks,” including, for example, using vehicles to target “large outdoor festivals, conventions, celebrations and parades” and “congested pedestrian streets,” they say.

“This specifically encourages attacks in the United States.”

Chkhikvishvili even allegedly told others that he had committed hate crimes while living with his grandmother in Brooklyn in 2022 — bragging to the leader of the Feurkrieg Division, another neo-Nazi group, about torturing and attempting to kill an elderly Jewish man.

Investigators later determined that Chkhikvishvili had worked at a Brooklyn-based rehabilitation center and had been employed by an Orthodox Jewish family to care for a now-deceased man.

“I was paid to torture a dying Jew,” he allegedly boasted in a message to the other neo-Nazi leader, sharing photos taken from the elderly man’s hospital bed.

But the feds are not charging Shkhikvishvili with the man's death, noting that they spoke to the deceased's family members who said he “had been ill for some time.”

Chkhikvishviliv now faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for solicitation of crimes, conspiracy to solicit violent crimes, disseminating information relating to the manufacture and use of explosive devices, and transmitting threatening communications.

It is unclear whether he has retained a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.