Eight members of a neo-Nazi gang said to be headed by a wanted Nazi war criminal were arrested in western Brazil after they fled Bolivia to avoid apprehension. Brazilian police sources said they would be deported to their countries of origin.
According to Rodolfo Landyvar, the Bolivian Consul in Mato Grosso Do Sul, Bolivian security services uncovered the para-military gang which calls itself “Las Novios De La Muerte” (Brides of Death) in the city of Santa Cruz De La Sierra. Its leader, Landyvar said, is Klaus Altmann, alias Barbie, the notorious “butcher of Lyon” who deported Jews and others from that French city during World War II. Altmann has been sentenced to death in absentia in France but efforts over the years to obtain his deportation have been fruitless.
He was not among the eight neo-Nazis who managed to cross the border into Brazil. They were identified as Manfred Kuhllmann, a German, Wolfgang Walterkirchen, an Austrian, three Bolivian nationals, two Argentinians and one Peruvian. According to Brazilian police they were carrying various types of arms, three kilograms of cocaine and Nazi propaganda pamphlets including pictures of Hitler with the inscription, “I shall be back.”
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