Neo-Nazi once worked for US Department of Homeland Security

Neo-Nazi Rinaldo Nazzaro 

Credit: Social media

The founder of a US-based neo-Nazi group worked for the US Department of Homeland Security from 2004-6, the department has confirmed.

Rinaldo Nazzaro was the founder and leader of The Base, described by the FBI as a “racially motivated violent extremist group” which “seeks to accelerate the downfall of the United States government.

Nine members of The Base have been arrested in the US since late 2019 accused of several alleged crimes including an assassination plot, planning a massed shootings and a train derailment.

Earlier his month Mr Nazzaro, who is now based in Russia,  published letters of appreciation from both the DHS and the Pentagon, praising him for his service.

The letter from the DHS lauded his work as an intelligence analyst, saying he had done a "superb job".

However,  the Marines declined to comment on letters which it appears to have sent to Mr Nazzaro, Vice News reported. The Pentagon said it could find no trace of him in its records.

Mr Nazzaro, who writes on social media as "Norman Spear", was first unmasked by the BBC and the Guardian last year. Public records seen by the Telegraph established that he had married a Russian woman in New York in 2012.

There have been several reported links between far-right extremists in Russia and the US.

The disclosure that it once employed Mr Nazzaro will be hugely embarrassing for the DHS, whose tasks include protecting the US from terrorist threats.

In October last year, the DHS produced an intelligence assessment warning of the threat posed by the far right.

"I am particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists who have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years," wrote Chad Wolf, who was the acting Homeland Security secretary.

Concern was heightened after it emerged that around 30 off duty law enforcement officers were suspected of participating in the Jan 6 Capitol insurrection. Several have since been charged in connection with the insurrection.

Mr Nazzaro has denied The Base is a terrorist organisation, insisting it was no more than a “survivalism and self-defence network for nationalists.”