Carabinieri bust Neofascist group

(ANSA) - Rome, December 22 - Carabinieri paramilitary police have busted an alleged Neofascist terror gang that was apparently stockpiling weapons "like toffees" for use in attacks on magistrates, police and Equitalia tax collection agency in an effort to destabilise the country, police said Monday.
    At least 14 people have been arrested in the Abruzzo region and elsewhere, including Rutilio Sermonti, a former member of the banned Ordine Nuovo (New Order) far-right group that carried out a string of terror attacks in the 1970s and 1980s in an effort to restore the Fascist regime of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini.
    Sermonti, a prolific writer, called for a new party to be formed while the military leader of the group was identified as former Carabinieri officer Stefano Manni.
    Investigators tapped conversations between Manni and another suspect, Franco Grespi, in which they referred to AK-47 assault rifles as "toffees" that they were trying to buy in Slovenia as well as explosives for bomb attacks. "This the moment to strike, but not blindly," Manni was quoted as saying. "Banks, prefectures, police stations, Equitalia offices with their employees inside need to be hit".
    Equitalia already has been attacked by anarchist urban guerrillas in the past.
    The suspects allegedly belonged on an illegal group that was inspired by the ideals of the disbanded "Ordine Nuovo" (New Order) organisation and was allegedly plotting "violent actions against institutional targets", according to the warrants issued by magistrates in the central city of L'Aquila.
    At the same time, the group also aimed to put their own in power "via regular elections with the presentation of a new party", according to the warrants.