Neo-Nazi jailed for terror offence after MI5 sting

Neo-Nazi who planned gun attack jailed after MI5 sting

ByLewis AdamsEssex and Neil Hendersonat the Old Bailey

Updated 4 minutes ago

A neo-Nazi who was plotting a gun attack has been jailed for 13 and a half years after being caught in an MI5 sting.

Agents lured Alfie Coleman, 22, to a car park in east London and swooped on him as he collected a Makarov pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition in September 2023.

The supermarket worker, from Great Notley in Essex, was described in court as a "militant accelerationist" who had been radicalised online from the age of 14.

He was convicted of preparing terrorist acts at the Old Bailey in April, where jurors heard he had dreamed of fighting a race war.

Judge Richard Marks KC described Coleman's views as "virulently racist" and branded him a "dangerous offender".

Coleman appeared tearful and wiped his eyes with a tissue as the judge made his remarks.

The sting operation involved undercover agents engaging with him on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, where he was seeking to buy a firearm.

Jurors at the trial saw dramatic footage of Coleman dropping £3,500 in a Land Rover and picking up a holdall containing the handgun and ammunition from the boot in a Morrisons car park in Stratford on 23 September 2023.

Moments later, Coleman was confronted by armed counter-terrorism police and lay on the ground.

Investigators later found a "manifesto" in his diary, where potential targets for an attack included the Lord Mayor of London and a mosque.

Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer KC said that two days before Coleman was due to pick up the Makarov, he wrote: "Something has gotta be done, how long can we sit here and talk over the internet?"

The same day, Coleman went online and ordered a Gerber Strongarm knife with a 4.8in (12cm) blade.

How MI5 foiled a Tesco worker's plan for mass gun attack

He first began trawling the internet for extreme right-wing material aged 14, downloading a neo-Nazi text to his iPad.

Authorities noticed his extreme views as he became increasingly active in far-right online groups in summer 2023, and Coleman pieced together a plan to attack a mosque in France, which was later abandoned.

A search of the home he shared with his parents in Tailors Close revealed the extent of Coleman's murderous ideology, including idolising Thomas Mair - the extremist who murdered Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016.

Police found a device to detect bugs and secret cameras in his bedside drawer, a rock with a swastika on it on a table, a black sun flag – associated with neo-Nazism – on the wall and knives.

His "manifesto" also drew inspiration from several extremist mass killers, including US church mass murderer Dylann Roof, who he regarded as "warriors".

Giving evidence, Coleman described being lonely and suffering with his mental health during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

In pre-sentence reports, probation officers deemed him as "posing a high risk of serious harm to the public" and found it unlikely "his feelings, which were evidently quite deeply rooted, would change completely", the court heard.

Coleman had admitted attempting to possess both a firearm and ammunition, but denied he was preparing for a terrorist attack.

He had pleaded guilty to possessing 10 documents with information likely to be useful to terrorists such as texts on weaponry and bomb-making instructions.