A Spanish judge suspends the far-right Nucleo Nacional group after 14 members were arrested and weapons were seized

A judge in Gijón, northern Spain, has ordered the suspension of the far-right group Nucleo Nacional (NN) as part of an investigation into illegal association and hate crimes. The decision was announced on Thursday, after 14 members of the group were arrested last week.

The court ordered the closure of the group’s headquarters and the freezing of its bank accounts and social media accounts. NN members are suspected of inciting hatred against vulnerable social groups and people with ideologies opposed to neo-Nazism.

Police searched the organization’s headquarters in Madrid and other locations associated with it. As a result of the operations, investigators seized more than 20 firearms, some of them held without permits, as well as ammunition and other illegal weapons.

Spanish authorities have been monitoring the group because of its anti-immigration positions. NN organized anti-immigration demonstrations in Ceuta after the incidents in July, when thousands of migrants attempted to enter the Spanish enclave in North Africa.

NN says it is a movement for “national awakening.” One member of the group publicly denounced what he called political persecution. The court said that several of the group’s leaders are already banned from leaving Spain and must report weekly to another court.