One worshiper described it as ‘the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life’.
Last month, about a dozen neo-Nazis waved swastikas and hurled anti-Semitic slurs at those attending a Saturday service at Chabad’s Cobb County Synagogue in East Cobb, Georgia.
The fascists were members of the well-established Goyim Defense League (GDL) and included notorious leader John Minadeo II, a failed rapper who was arrested in Poland last year for a gruesome protest outside the former Auschwitz concentration camp.
Weeks before the sickening synagogue protest, a new neo-Nazi group staged a swastika-waving protest outside Disneyland in Florida, to the dismay of visiting families.
The Order of the Black Sun was brought together by allies of various white supremacist groups in the South – symbolizing a new era of collaboration between far-right extremists that has spawned record numbers of hate propaganda.
Where the movement was once riven by infighting and splinter groups, anti-hate watchdogs have noticed a growing convergence in recent years.
Neo-Nazi groups have begun working together on a larger scale, prompting fears of a repeat of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
John Minadeo II (left), a failed rapper and actor, and former coffee salesman Dominic DiGiorgio (right) are the ringleaders of the anti-Semitic Goyim Defense League, which bombards Americans across the country with racist stunts and propaganda.
Last year, at least 50 different white supremacist groups flooded the country with a record amount of racist propaganda, including flyers, banners, graffiti and laser projections, according to the watchdog Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
It raises the dire prospect of another violent uprising like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which saw groups of white nationalists clash with counter-protesters, injuring dozens and killing one in 2017.
DailyMail.com untangles hidden networks and heroes pulling the strings of hate.
Patriotic Front
The Texas-based group has been responsible for most white supremacist propaganda since 2019, the ADL says.
Its members believe that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it to them.
Their leader is believed to be Thomas Russo, 24, of Grapevine, Texas, who was one of 31 gang members charged with felony conspiracy to commit a riot after a truck was stopped near a Pride event in Idaho last June and found in uniform. And armed with riot shields.
Russo honed his publicity skills in the Coppel High School student newspaper.
Surprisingly, her first column on February 28, 2016 was titled ‘Diversity club brings friendly atmosphere to students from diverse backgrounds’, a positive review of her school’s equality and diversity initiatives.
Yet just over a year later, he led the white supremacist group Vanguard America in the deadly Unite the Right march in Charlottesville and was featured in the foreground of several photos of James Alex Fields, Jr., who killed counter-protester Heather. Hare as he drove his car through the crowd.
Thomas Russo (left), 24, the alleged leader of the Patriot Front, a far-right group responsible for much of the white supremacist campaigning in the United States since 2019. The leader of its Florida chapter, Stephen Trimboli (right), helped foster the organization’s connections with neo-Nazis from other associations.
Russo (front left) is pictured at the deadly Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, in the foreground of several photos is James Alex Fields, Jr., (back right) the man who killed counter-protester Heather Hare when he drove his car into the crowd.
Trimble displays all the character traits of an ‘incel’ – an involuntary celibate – lamenting his lack of success with women in online chats and complaining about his ex-girlfriends.
Trimoli has joined camps with white supremacists from various groups across the country. Here he is pictured at a team-bonding camp at an undisclosed location
Trimble was responsible for securing a camp site where he and other white nationalists had drilled to prepare them for confrontations with riot police.
The Patriot Front split later that year from Vanguard America, which Rousseau led, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Joining the group in 2018 was the gangly, long-haired son of Stephen J. Trimble, an Amazon executive from Washington state.
He later moved to Florida to become the group’s network director in the Sunshine State, where he lived rent-free with his parents.
Trimble exhibits all the character traits of an ‘incel’ – an unwilling celibate whose bitterness at their lack of success with women often boils over into hatred and even violence.
He complains in group chats about his inability to score dates, finding solace in other Patriot Front members who see women as distractions from their cause.
But the acne-ridden racist also helped spread the group’s hateful ideas across Florida and was pictured at training camps with members of the Goyim Defense League and the Nationalist Socialist Movement.
Goyim Defense League
An anti-Semitic group of provocateurs whose loose network of members across the country enables it to mix and collaborate with other neo-Nazi groups.
Its strongholds include Arizona, California, Georgia and Texas, but many of its recent stunts have been in Florida, the new home of the California-grown Minadio II.
It is adept at conducting highly offensive stunts, such as driving a van dressed as a Jew in what it calls a ‘name the nose’ tour.
The term Goyim is a derogatory Jewish and Hebrew term for non-Jews.
In addition to helping create The Order of the Black Sun, the GDL fostered other emerging neo-Nazi branches such as Natsoc Florida, based in Duval County and led by former US Marine Joshua Dan Nunes.
Minadio II, who has a Mexican-American background, rose through the ranks of America’s neo-Nazi community after quitting his job at his grandmother’s restaurant in Valley Ford, California.
Minadio (left) and DiGiorgio (right) during a racist road trip around Florida.
GDL associate Jason J. Brown was charged with grand theft after attending a demonstration with the leader of the National Socialist Movement.
Minadio (front seat) with Brown (back right) during a GDL tour of Texas in October 2021.
Minadio (front) with other GDL members who posed as Jews while distributing propaganda in Canyon, Texas in 2021
The GDL is based in Duval County and has fostered other emerging neo-Nazi branches such as Natsoc Florida, led by former US Marine Joshua Dan Nunes (above).
He founded GDL in 2020 and now makes a living from anti-Semitism.
The 40-year-old earns up to $7,000 a month from donations on his live streaming channel on video platform Odyssey.
His showbiz persona dates back to his early career in independent films, where he starred in 2011’s Curveball, a little-known vampire film about a man whose girlfriend cheats on him.
Under the name Shoobie Da Wop, he also tried his hand at rapping, releasing the albums American Man Whore in 2013 and Where Moans in 2015, which boasted his apparent sexual conquests.
His lieutenant, family man Dominick DiGiorgio, has a more modest background as a coffee salesman who went to The Coffee Guy while running his business in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
He now goes by the absurd moniker Nationalist Ned Flanders, helping launch GDL’s live streaming platform and online shop.
In October 2021, DiGiorgio, 43, drove about half a dozen Florida-based GDL fans in his van to drop anti-Semitic banners in Texas.
He was arrested for possessing a license plate flipper, which allows the owner of a vehicle to switch between license plates to avoid detection by police.
National Socialist Movement
Neo-Nazi groups often advocate demonstrations involving multiple organizations to give the appearance of larger numbers.
In January 2022, a particularly ugly confrontation occurred in Orlando, Florida when a Jewish man who stopped to confront them was spat on, pepper sprayed and punched.
Three people were indicted for their alleged roles in the attack, including National Socialist Movement leader Bert Colucci, from Kissimmee, Florida, who was charged with hate crime assault, and Jason Jay Brown of GDL, who was charged with grand theft.
Bart Colucci, the leader of the National Socialist Movement, was charged with a hate crime in connection with an incident in which a Jewish man was spat on, pepper-sprayed and punched when he stopped to confront a group of neo-Nazis in Orlando, Florida, last year.
Increased cooperation between neo-Nazi groups veteran white supremacist David Howard Widener, 75, known as ‘Dada’ and involved in the NSM, GLD and WLM groups
Colucci, an NSM veteran, already faced charges stemming from an April 2021 incident in which he allegedly pointed a handgun at a group of black men during an argument in Chandler, Arizona.
Under his leadership, the organization openly worshiped Adolf Hitler and was one of the most openly anti-Semitic groups in the United States.
It has shrunk in size in recent years and now often works in partnership with White Lives Matter (WLM), GDL, or the New Jersey European Heritage Association, of which Brown, originally from New Jersey, is also an associate.
Its extensive connections include member David Howard Widener, 75, known as ‘Dada’ on social media.
Widener, who said in an online NSM chat that he was ‘spending every waking moment growing our protest’, attended a WLM rally in DeLand, Florida in December 2021, wearing an NSM shirt and hat, before attending a GDL in Port Saint John the next day. Banner drop.