Pro-Russian Neo-Nazis Caught Operating Within US Military
U.S. military investigators examined links between Marines and a pro-Russia neo-Nazi group in Poland, exposing vulnerabilities in America’s handling of extremism in the ranks, according to documents released after a lawsuit by news outlet Raw Story.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) launched an inquiry in 2020 into Lance Cpl. Liam Collins, based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, following revelations that he had been active on Iron March, an online forum for global white supremacists. Collins communicated with members of Falanga, a Polish far-right organization with ties to Moscow, discussing paramilitary training and the potential for cross-border collaboration.
By October that year, Liam Collins and Cpl. Jordan Duncan, a Marine linguist specializing in Russian, were arrested in connection with a plot targeting U.S. energy infrastructure. Authorities alleged the men sought to manufacture unregistered firearms, steal military equipment, and trigger unrest through sabotage. During a raid on Duncan’s Boise, Idaho residence, the FBI recovered classified material including a “capabilities brief” on signals intelligence operations—sensitive information that, if compromised, could have aided adversaries.
Court documents indicate the NCIS initially refused to release records under the Freedom of Information Act, citing privacy concerns. Raw Story sued, and a federal judge ruled disclosure served the public interest by providing visibility into how the military addresses extremist threats.
The case widened into an “insider threat” investigation as authorities uncovered that Duncan’s hard drive contained not only restricted military documents but also bomb-making instructions and chemical weapons schematics. Federal prosecutors later described the material as a shared library circulating among group members.
Collins was ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison for aiding the illegal transport of firearms. Duncan pleaded guilty to weapons charges in 2021 and is serving a seven-year term. Neither was charged with espionage; the Justice Department avoided pursuing classified-information violations, a move officials said was intended to prevent prejudicing a jury.
Falanga, the Polish group at the center of the case, has a history of pro-Kremlin activities, including visits to Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine and meetings with nationalist ideologue Aleksander Dugin. Scholars say the organization could not maintain such connections without tacit support from Russian intelligence.
Polish prosecutors have tied Falanga members to a 2018 arson attack on a Hungarian cultural center in western Ukraine—an operation viewed as serving Moscow’s interests by stoking ethnic conflict.
The investigation underscores the challenges U.S. authorities face in identifying extremist infiltration in the armed forces—and the risks when classified material collides with ideological radicalization.
