MI5 Sting Operation Leads to 13-Year Sentence for Neo-Nazi Who Planned Mass Gun Attack

Alfie Coleman, 22, of Great Notley, Essex, was sentenced at the Old Bailey to 13 years and six months in prison plus five years' extended licence after a retrial convicted him of preparing for terrorist acts; Judge Richard Marks KC called him a "dangerous offender" whose views were "virulently racist" 1234. MI5 and Counter Terrorism Policing said they identified Coleman in summer 2023 after he grew more active in online extreme right-wing groups, then used undercover officers to arrange his purchase of a Makarov pistol, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition for £3,500 234. Armed counter-terrorism officers arrested him in a Morrisons car park in Stratford, east London, on 29 September 2023 as he collected the pistol and ammunition 234. Investigators said Coleman, radicalised online from age 14, kept a manifesto-style diary naming potential targets including the Lord Mayor of London and a mosque, and idolised Thomas Mair, who murdered MP Jo Cox 1234. A former part-time Tesco worker, he also kept a separate hate list branding colleagues and customers "race traitors" over interracial relationships, recording their vehicle number plates 24. He pleaded guilty to possessing 10 documents likely to be useful to terrorists but denied he was preparing an attack 1234.