US neo-Nazi plotted to kill journalist who reported on him, testimony reveals

An Alabama neo-Nazi accused of trying to start a paramilitary unit to take out “high value targets” aimed to kill a journalist who once reported on him, according to law enforcement testimony obtained by the Guardian. Aiden Daniel Cuevas allegedly used “coded talk” to tell an undercover officer in November 2024 that the journalist was a “pawn” that “needed to be taken off the board”. The alleged exchange with the undercover officer was revealed by Chris Hluzek, a criminal investigator with the Huntsville police department assigned to an FBI joint terrorism taskforce, during his testimony at a January detention hearing. He added that, when the undercover officer pressed Cuevas about whether he simply meant he wanted to dox or harass the journalist, he is said to have replied: “What good is harassing a pawn and not removing it?” The Guardian is not naming the journalist at their request, given legitimate safety concerns. Prosecutors asserted that, while he did not use the word “kill”, the meaning of Cuevas’ coded language was clear. “What we have here is a foiled murder plot,” Jonathan Cross, an assistant US attorney for the northern district of Alabama, told the court, according to a transcript of the hearing. The subject of a year-long undercover investigation, Cuevas was arrested in January after allegedly paying an undercover officer $1,500 for three fully automatic weapons and three Glock-style pistols with obliterated serial numbers. …