RapeWaffen Division

A secretive organization called the “RapeWaffen Division” (RWD), organized via a channel on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, claims to be a splinter group of AWD. The group promotes white supremacy extremism, neo-Nazi satanism, and, unsurprisingly, rape against women. Relative to AWD, RWD adheres more closely to the Order of Nine Angles neo-Nazi satanic philosophy and emphasizes sexual violence more explicitly. RWD boasts of transnational ties to like-minded extremists in Canada, Australia, and Russia. The leader of RWD, who goes by the online names “Sinisterius” and “Sinistrovs,” is unknown, as is the size of the group. The date of RWD’s founding is unclear. The group came to public attention in June 2020 when two U.S. servicemembers, Ohio National Guard Pfc. Shandon Simpson and Pvt. Ethan P. Melzer, were investigated for ties to RWD. After Melzer’s indictment, the group announced that it was disbanding; RWD, however, reportedly has a history of disappearing from public view and returning to operations not long after.