A suspected member of a neo-Nazi terrorist group has returned to the US having spent nearly two weeks in Ireland.
The 31-year-old American had travelled through Ireland to Germany on November 7th. After arriving in Berlin he was detained by German police, who were aware of his background, and put on a flight back to Dublin Airport.
The American, who was identified in German media as Kyle M, was allowed to remain in Ireland until last Wednesday, November 20th, when he returned to the United States voluntarily.
The man is suspected to be a member of the Atomwaffen (Atomic Weapons) Division, a violent far-right group which has been implicated in several murders and planned terrorist attacks in the US.
The group encourages attacks on non-white people, Jewish people and the gay community and seeks to overthrow the US government to bring about a white ethno-state.
According to reports in Der Speigel and Die Zeit, German police were tipped off by the FBI that Kyle M was travelling to Berlin via Dublin.
He arrived on an Aer Lingus flight at Tegel Airport on the evening of Thursday, November 7th. Federal Police detained the man as he came off the plane and held him for questioning before putting him on a flight back to Dublin that night.
The man told the authorities he was in Germany for a holiday and to marry a German woman, police said. A German woman was waiting to pick him up at the airport.
“The Federal Police Directorate Berlin can confirm that on November 7th, 2019, a 31-year-old American was denied entry at Berlin Tegel Airport. Subsequent to the border police control, the man was sent to Dublin on the same day,” a German police spokesman told The Irish Times.
A Garda spokesman said it was “aware of a male US citizen who travelled from the US to Germany transiting Dublin and who was refused entry into Germany and returned to Dublin. This male has now returned to the US on 20/11/2019 from Dublin”.
It is understood the Garda was made aware of the reasons for the man’s deportation from Germany.
Despite its small size - it is estimated to have less than 100 members in the US - the Atomwaffen Division is one of the most violent neo-Nazi or far-right groups to spring up in recent years.
It was founded in the southern states of the US in about 2015 and has branches or associate organisations in the UK, Canada, Germany and several eastern European states.
Its members have been implicated in murder, gun smuggling and planning attacks on US nuclear facilities.
In recent months it has also become increasingly active in Germany where in October supporters issued death threats to two Green Party politicians, drawing condemnation from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Citing social media posts, Die Zeit newspaper reported Kyle M has connections to the German far-right through the neo-nazi music scene.
In 2018, right-wing extremists announced the establishment of a German branch of the Atomwaffen Division. Shortly afterwards, German police warned a US woman that she was under threat from members of the group who they believed had travelled from the US to attack her.
