London Evening Standard - 11/19/99 London foots the neo-Nazi bill by Colin Adamson The ruins of Los Pedriches, deep within the pine forest and vast rolling vineyards of south-eastern Spain, seem worlds away from the cosmopolitan bustle of Shirland Road, Maida Vale. But behind the padlocked steel doors and barred windows of several newly renovated buildings "political soldiers" of an international neo-Nazi group are building a fascist village with thousands of pounds unwittingly provided by Londoners over the counters of charity shops. Three months after the Evening Standard exposed the Trust of St Michael the Archangel and its sister registered charity the St George's Educational Trust as fronts for an extremist organisation called the the International Third Position (ITP) we discovered that their main project is on the verge of rapid expansion with still no move from the Charity Commissioners to stop it. Only the intervention of the Spanish police and a deeply concerned local authority, who launched simultaneous investigations this week, now threatens to block the warped ambitions of Roberto Fiore, the London-based fascist leader who is masterminding the creation of a permanent camp for nationalists from all over Europe. The co-founder of the ITP today shows no sign that he will walk away from Los Pedriches, even although the small, mainly British band of followers living full-time in the village have temporarily vanished to escape media attention. During the week the Evening Standard spent in the isolated area 60 miles inland from the Mediterranean port of Valencia, Fiore - who was convicted of associating with subversives and sentenced to jail in his absence by a court in his native Italy - hired the region's principal defender of neo-Nazi extremists to press the local mayor for permission to buy yet more property and land. He has also applied to have the settlement redesignated as an active village 18 years after its 50-strong population gave up farming and moved away. This would make the council in nearby Venta del Moro liable for the cost of providing power, water, sanitation and roads. These moves have delighted neo-Nazi leaders in Valencia who are planning a support rally in Los Pedriches this weekend on their way to the annual Franco commemoration march in Madrid. The Evening Standard has uncovered documented evidence of Fiore's Spanish village connection and the identities of those working with him in establishing a new base for ITP - which advocates the destruction of Israel, the repatriation of ethnic minorities and the persecution of homosexuals. Fiore and fellow ITP co-founder Massimo Morsello, also living in London and also sentenced to jail in his absence in Italy on the same charges, are clearly named as joint owners on Spanish land registry documents. Details are also recorded of how the 1996 purchases were made on their behalf by their lawyer and agent, Fernando Pazos, who paid 2.8 million pesetas (�12,000) with a Barclays Bank cheque drawn from a Meeting Point account. Meeting Point, an unscrupulous accommodation and travel agency run by Fiore from offices in Earl's Court Road, Kensington, allowed him to live in a �1 million home in Lanark Road, Maida Vale - only a short walk from the Shirland Road "charity" shop run by the St Michael's Trust. Fiore's lawyer has not returned calls since Spain's El Pais national newspaper reported the discovery of the ITP village. He denied any political activities when first contacted and according to El Pais said the properties were leased to "a catholic association" by the name of St Michael the Archangel. This supposed catholic background was used by St Michael's Trust when, after a year-long investigation, it persuaded the Charity Commissioners to allow it to retain its charity status and Fiore to be reinstated after initial suspension as a trustee of St George's. However, the Roman Catholic Church denied any connection. The St Michael's accounts of March 1997 show that �7,000 raised through the London charity shops was spent on "the Spanish village project" and literature distributed by the trust request donations for the building of a chapel "furnished according to traditional values". Had the Charity Commissioners visited Los Pedriches they would have discovered no evidence of such a chapel. The ITP activists have erected several stark breeze-block buildings to house equipment and vehicles, a meeting hall, and several units of living accommodation - none of which has planning permission according to a council architect on a site inspection this week. They would also have found hundreds of beer cans and wine bottles scattered over the surrounding fields and bushes. Planning social revolution is clearly thirsty work as neighbouring farmer Miguel Haba testified. "I know nothing of what they do here ... only that every so often they have big parties with much drinking," he said. In Venta del Moro the mayor also knew little of the new Los Pedriches villagers apart from the names provided by Fiore and Marcello in the application for amenities. They include Stuart Ronald McCullough, 32, Maciej Fornella, a 29-year-old Pole, Christopher Marchent, 37, and his French wife Sabine, 31, and their five-year-old son. ITP Internet sites provide more chilling details of the organisation's aims. One says: "Europe is falling apart ... In the inner cities a whole generation of our youth are being influenced into talking, walking and acting like blacks. Something has to be done now. The movement has taken on a deserted village that we are reconstructing, repopulating and turning into a beacon of hope." Despite the evidence against Fiore and the St Michael's Trust, both continue to deny ITP involvement and have lodged complaints with the Press Complaints Commission. These are being strenuously answered by the Evening Standard. We have produced new evidence, with the assistance of the anti-Nazi newspaper Searchlight, and Larry O'Hara, an investigator of racist groups in Britain, who through his magazine Notes from the Borderland first helped bring these matters to the attention of the Charity Commissioners. Email this article to a friend � Associated Newspapers Ltd., 19 November 1999 Terms and Conditions This Is London
