BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — A group of skinheads in Argentina celebrating the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth was arrested.
The operation required months of investigation, the chief commissar of the Federal Police Investigation Unit for Discriminatory Behavior told JTA in a phone interview.
Sunday’s event was held at the Central Argentine Club in the town of San Martin in Buenos Aires province, on the eve of the anniversary of Hitler’s birth. The skinheads belong to the group Blood and Honor, which is dedicated to transmitting Nazi content through concerts, books, films and Web sites. The group has its central headquarters in Britain, as well as subsidiaries throughout Europe and America.
Flags, music and films with anti-Semitic and discriminatory content were found at the neo-Nazi event.
A gag order on the arrests was lifted Wednesday.
A detention of 25 skinheads last December at the German Cemetery in the Chacarita neighborhood of Buenos Aires was a key to gaining access to the group and information for Sunday’s event, according to Unit Chief Commissar Carlos Maria Sucatti. Police also learned about the event through a Black and Honor Web site, which gave a time and location for the program.
Sucatti told JTA that the skinheads were indicted and released because the crime does not carry a mandatory prison sentence.
The arrests pleased leadership of the DAIA umbrella Jewish group in Argentina.
“We have a permanent relationship of mutual cooperation,” stressed a DAIA spokesman.
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