In East Providence, experts say, neo-Nazis trying to recruit were not anonymous this time
Typically, say experts, the people who promote white supremacist groups operate like ghosts in the night, disappearing without a trace after they post their promotional stickers and flyers in New England neighborhoods.
But recruiters for the Nationalist Social Club 131 blew their cover late last month in East Providence.
They ended up in an encounter with East Providence police, who were aided by information from a tipster.
The men had a stapler and stacks of recruiting flyers for their group, which the Anti-Defamation League describes as a neo-Nazi organization.
It wasn't any pro-white message from the Nationalist Social Club 131 that tripped them up, however.
A city ordinance makes it unlawful to fasten any private flyers – including ones for lost dogs or yard sales – to utility poles.
Arrested for refusing to identify themselves
Two of the men initially told an officer that they had stapled flyers to poles at the Gordon School on Maxfield Avenue, say police. During questioning, the same two men also refused to provide identification and were arrested. They were identified as Stephen T. Farrea of Portsmouth and Austin Conti of Yuma, Arizona.
Three other men who were with them, including a man holding staplers, denied hanging the flyers and were let go, says the police report.
Robert Trestan, director of the Anti-Defamation League in New England, said it's highly unusual to learn the identity of Neo-Nazis who post stickers, flyers and other propaganda in public places.
In this case, the city's utility-pole ordinance was helpful, according to East Providence police Lt. Mike Rapoza.
"I would credit it to some degree," said Rapoza, who said all five of the men refused to identify themselves initially.
July Fourth weekend heavy with handbills
The arrests on June 21 in East Providence preceded a wave of flyer activity through the Independence Day weekend in at least a few Rhode Island jurisdictions, including Cranston, according to Cranston's police chief, Col. Michael J. Winquist.
In the Arlington neighborhood on Tuesday morning, 38-year-old Joyce Aboutaan learned about the flyer campaign from one of her sons.
He told his mother he had found three of the club's flyers stuck together in the family's driveway.
"We oppose the criminal anti-American & anti-white street gangs such as MS13 ..." says one of the flyers. The text is entirely in capital letters.
"New Englanders!" says another flyer that describes the club as "a pro-white street-oriented fraternity dedicated to raising authentic resistance to the enemies of our people in the New England area."
Resident finds flyers 'terrifying'
Calling the flyers "terrifying," Aboutaan said the language reminds her of the factionalism that fueled violence and war during her childhood in Lebanon in the 1980s.
The Lebanese factions were divided more by religious identity and politics than by differences in race or ethnicity, Aboutaan said, but she agreed that the tone of the flyers reminds her of sectarian disputes that pitted groups of Lebanese people against each other. The result was violence that her family tried to flee.
On Tuesday, a dog-walker found one of the club's flyers along Moccasin Trail in Cranston.
Winquist said the language in the flyers he has seen so far is "concerning" and "upsetting," but without any calls for violence the dissemination of such content in a public place is outside "the realm of disorderly conduct."
Cranston police are looking at the potential for enforcing a littering ordinance, he said. Canvassing neighborhoods for surveillance video of flyer drops is one avenue of investigation, he added.
Meanwhile, Cranston police have determined that a Massachusetts vehicle driven by one of the men at the scene of the flyer incident in East Providence last month was in Cranston over the holiday weekend, Winquist said.
Portsmouth man had ties to group that organized rally in Charlottesville
It appears that one of those men, Farrea, was previously associated with Identity Evropa, a white-supremacist group that helped organize the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to Carla Hill, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League''s Center on Extremism.
Hill cited a 2019 HuffPost report that identified a Stephen Farrea as a Marine reservist who was among seven U.S. armed-services members who had ties to an extremist group Identity Evropa.
Those ties, says the report, were exposed when an "independent media collective," Unicorn Riot, published the contents of an online server.
What is Nationalist Social Club 131?
The Nationalist Social Club 131 was founded in 2019, and has focused on New England, said Trestan.
Its members have participated in various hate-themed spectacles, and they have been active in Rhode Island.
In February, club members, wearing uniforms, unfurled a flag bearing World War II-era symbols of the Nazi SS outside The Red Ink Community Library in Providence.
"They're a small neo-Nazi group," Trestan said.
"They're proud of the racism and anti-Semitism that they espouse," he added.
Both Farrea and Conti are scheduled to appear in District Court, Providence, on July 12.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Neo-Nazi recruiters in East Providence were not anonymous this time
