‘Murderous Ambush’: Former U.S. Soldier Gets 45 Years for Helping Neo-Nazi Group in Plot to Kill Troops

A former U.S. Army soldier was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison, the maximum, for plotting what prosecutors described as a “murderous ambush” overseas on members of his own troop.

Eric Melzer, a 24-year-old from Kentucky, shared location and layout information about a sensitive U.S. military installation to the violent, anti-government, neo-Nazi organization Order of Nine Angles. He was arrested in June 2020 and pleaded guilty in 2022.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Melzer intended to spark a jihadist terror attack on his own unit or any other that took up its location in order to undermine the United States abroad and further the goals of O9A, a largely United Kingdom-based group that has sympathized with al Qaeda.

For more on this story, go to NBC News.