“The investigation suggested they were developing an ill-defined plot to carry out an attack, likely to target a place of worship,” the judicial source said, adding that five members of the group, who were “close in ideology to the neo-Nazi movement” were charged between September and May over the alleged plot.
Police in the French southeastern city of Grenoble first arrested a man on weapons charges on September 2018. The investigation led them to the four other suspects, two of them minors. The sources gave no details of specific targets or motives.
Anti-terrorism investigators took over the case in January and charged the suspects with terror offenses, including making and transporting explosive devices and partaking in a terrorist conspiracy.
France has seen the rise of a handful of alleged terror plots involving far-right extremists in recent months. On November, six people were arrested over an alleged plot to attack President Emmanuel Macron.
A similar case happened on July 2017, when a 23-year-old was charged with plotting to assassinate the head of state at France’s Bastille Day military parade. The man told investigators he wanted to kill Macron along with “Muslims, Jews, Blacks, and homosexuals,” three kitchen knives were found in his car.
On June 2018, 13 people with links to the radical Action des Forces Operationnelles (Operational Forces of Action) group were arrested by anti-terrorist police over an alleged plot to attack Muslims.