Former Kaneohe Marine associated with neo-Nazi group plotted attacks, feds say

A former U.S. service member is in federal custody in Hawaii after he was arrested in June in New York and charged with making false statements to a federal firearms licensee in a scheme to have a New York police officer illegally purchase a semi-automatic rifle and handgun for him.

In court documents obtained by Rolling Stone magazine and published Tuesday, prosecutors allege that while serving at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, Cpl. Matthew Bel­anger was secretly conspiring to commit mass murder and sexual assault to “decrease the number of minority residents” in the United States as part of his membership in a far-right neo-Nazi group called Rape­krieg.

Belanger has not been charged with crimes related to his alleged membership in the group, but a federal judge sided with prosecutors who argued that Bel­anger should be held in pretrial detention on grounds that his extremist activities pose “both a danger to the community and a risk of non-appearance.”

According to the documents, Belanger’s attorney Leighton Lee had argued that his client should be allowed home detention with an ankle monitor. Lee argued Belanger was not a flight risk, in part because he had not fled despite being aware that he was under federal investigation for nearly two years.

Belanger received an other than honorable discharge from the Marine Corps in May 2021 for extremist activity after he was investigated by the military and the FBI. He left Hawaii and moved back to New York.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Honolulu opposed the motion to review the detention order on the grounds that “such plan is unacceptable because defendant would be living in the same household as his co-conspirator for the charged offenses.” The court documents say that he is currently residing with his mother and stepfather, who are believed to be relocating to Florida.

Federal prosecutors in Honolulu allege there is also “substantial evidence” that he was planning an attack on a synagogue in New York, has “engaged in live exercises for to practice such an attack,” and “made plans to engage in widespread homicide and sexual assaults to decrease the number of minority residents in the United States.”

A July 14 court memo by a federal agent with Joint Terrorism Task Force Pacific also alleges Belanger intended to rape “white women to increase the production of white children.”

Lee could not be reached for comment. A Marine Corps spokesman declined to comment, and a spokesman for U.S. Hawaii District Court did not respond to a request for comment.

Belanger joined the Marines in August 2018 and was stationed in Kaneohe from October 2019 to May 2021.

According to the documents, on Oct. 20, 2020, Marine Corps and FBI officials searched his barracks and seized a laptop and two cellphones. Investigators allegedly recovered “1,950 images, videos and documents related to white power groups, Nazi literature, brutality towards the Jewish community, brutality towards women, rape, mass murderers,” along with “violent uncensored executions and/or rape” and “previous mass murderers such as Dylan Roof.”

Prosecutors say they also found “instructional documents relating to building explosives and/or illegal firearms” and “communications related to illegally obtained firearms.”

Texts and Facebook messages allegedly sent between Belanger and several associates, including the unnamed officer, detail his efforts to have the officer buy weapons on his behalf, which included a PTR91 semi-automatic rifle for Belanger while he was stationed in Hawaii. Belanger enlisted the same officer to purchase him a Luger, a handgun famously associated with the German military during the world wars, for almost $1,000, prosecutors say.

Belanger also bragged about his military service and the equipment he handled on the job with members of Rapekrieg in online chats, according to court documents.

The documents noted photos he took of himself in uniform, including some in which he wore a skull mask that has been popular among neo-Nazi groups. In a series of photos where he was wearing his Marine Corps-issued gear, he allegedly commented that “built in fans keep me cool while on the rape beat” and “boonie (hat) stays on during rape.”

Rapekrieg, according to prosecutors, has “overlapping beliefs and membership with other neo-Nazi groups such as ‘Rapewaffen’ and ‘Atomwaffen.’” Several members of Atomwaffen have been charged with federal firearm offenses, and the group has chapters across the U.S. and Europe.

Prosecutors wrote the groups are “similar” and “espouse racially motivated violent extremist neo-Nazi rhetoric and call for acts of violence to further their extremist ideology.” A Rape­krieg manifesto cited in the federal documents speaks approvingly of “rape ideology” as an “effective tool” against the group’s supposed enemies.

In June 2020 Belanger allegedly commented “good find” on an encrypted group chat in response to a photo of a teenager identified by another Rapekrieg member as a “jew.” The group also shared the girl’s music school and high school locations, as well as YouTube videos of the girl playing a recital. A member of the group said he “could possibly get her pretty easy (right now),” to which Belanger allegedly replied, “I’m not on the mainland currently so no.”

When protests broke out after Mineapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, Belanger allegedly suggested his associates “disguise yourselves as Hasidic Jews and shoot until the crowd of protesters are dead,” and declared that “if (T)rump declares martial law imma have to gun down negroes attacking federal buildings ironic.”

Belanger also allegedly created a Twitter account of a fictitious gay Jewish man named “Israel Shillingstein,” which he told fellow Rape­krieg members was meant to make derogatory statements about Black people in order to generate racial animosity between groups.

In one of the communications investigators obtained regarding the alleged plot of attack against the synagogue, one of Belanger’s associates said, “before you do this, delete all your social media, destroy your hard drives and any evidence that would suggest your motive if you get caught,” prosecutors said.