A federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York, returned a four-count indictment Tuesday charging 21, also known as Mishka, Michael, Commander Butcher, and Butcher, with soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence in New York City, according to authorities.
This included the following allegations:
- A Leader of Maniac Murder Cult, a White Supremacist Group, Allegedly Recruited Others to Commit Arsons and Bombings Targeting Racial Minorities and the Jewish Community
- Planned New Year’s Eve Attack Involved Santa Claus Handing Out Poisoned Candy to Racial Minorities as well as Distributing Poisoned Candy to Jewish Children in Brooklyn
According to court documents, Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian National, was arrested based on an Interpol Wanted Person Diffusion issued from a criminal complaint.
Chkhikvishvili is allegedly a leader of the Maniac Murder Cult (MKY), also known as Maniacs Murder Cult, Cult of Killing, MMC, and MKU. This group is an international racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist organization.
MKY follows a neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology, promoting violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and other groups they consider “undesirables.” Members aim to challenge social order and governments through terrorism and acts of violence that create fear and chaos.
MKY has members both in the United States and internationally.
Chkhikvishvili allegedly recruited others to commit violent acts in furtherance of MKY’s ideologies, including planning and soliciting a mass casualty attack in New York City from an undercover law enforcement employee whom Chkhikvishvili believed was a prospective MKY recruit.
Since approximately September 2021, Chkhikvishvili has distributed a manifesto titled the “Hater’s Handbook” to MKY members and others.
The handbook discusses MKY’s principles and encourages members to engage in acts of mass violence in furtherance of those principles.
In the handbook, Chkhikvishvili states that he has “murdered for the white race” and encourages and instructs others to commit acts of mass violence and “ethnic cleansing.”
For example, and among other things, the handbook encourages its readers to commit school shootings and to use children to perpetrate suicide bombings and other mass killings targeting racial minorities.
The document describes methods and strategies for committing mass “terror attacks,” including, for example, using vehicles to target “large outdoor festivals, conventions, celebrations and parades” and “pedestrian congested streets.” It specifically encourages committing attacks within the United States.
After April 2022, Chkhikvishvili traveled to Brooklyn and stayed with his grandmother. He returned to the United States in June 2022, listing his grandmother’s Brooklyn address as his residence.
From at least July 2022, Chkhikvishvili used encrypted messaging platforms to repeatedly encourage others to commit violent hate crimes and acts of violence for MKY. This included conspiring with a leader of another neo-Nazi extremist group and soliciting mass violence in New York from someone he believed was a potential MKY recruit but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.
In September 2023, the undercover agent (UC) asked Chkhikvishvili if there was an application process to join MKY. Chkhikvishvili replied, “Yes, we ask for videos of brutal beatings, arson/explosions, or murders on camera.” He added that “poisoning and arson are the best options for murder” and suggested considering a larger “mass murder” in the United States. He advised that the victims should be “low race targets.”
In November 2023, Chkhikvishvili solicited the undercover agent (UC) to commit violent crimes, such as bombings and arsons, targeting racial minorities, Jewish individuals, and others. He provided detailed plans, bomb-making instructions, and guidance on making Molotov cocktails to facilitate these crimes.
Also in November 2023, Chkhikvishvili planned a mass casualty attack in New York City for New Year’s Eve. The plan involved someone dressed as Santa Claus handing out candy laced with poison to racial minorities and children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn.
Chkhikvishvili drafted step-by-step instructions and shared detailed manuals on creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases with the UC.
He also instructed the undercover agent (UC) on making ricin-based poisons in both powder and liquid forms, including extracting ricin from castor beans.
Some of the materials he shared were linked to radical Islamist jihadist groups and designated foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS.
Chkhikvishvili intended for the planned attack to be “bigger than Breivik,” referencing Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in a 2011 bombing and mass shooting.
He also claimed to have committed other hate crimes while living in Brooklyn in 2022, boasting that he was “glad I have murdered” and that he would “murder more” but wanted “others to murder first.”
If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces up to 20 years in prison for soliciting violent felonies (including hate crimes and transporting explosives with intent to kill or injure), up to five years for conspiring to solicit violent felonies, up to 20 years for distributing information on making and using explosive devices, and up to five years for transmitting threatening communications
The FBI is investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ellen H. Sise and Andrew D. Reich for the Eastern District of New York and Trial Attorney Jennifer Levy of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division also provided assistance.