More than 60 people have been arrested in raids across Germany carried out by that country’s secret thought police—the modern version of the old East German communist Stasi.

The raids—carried out early Wednesday morning—arrested members of a private Facebook group which opposed the Angela Merkel-created “refugee” invasion.

A statement issued by the Federal Office of Criminal Investigations (BKA) said that the aim of the mass raids was to “decisively confront the growth in verbal radicalism which is appearing on the Internet.”

Since December 2015, the BKA has been coordinating a special police unit which combines state and federal police in a project called “Tackling Hate Posting.”

The unit was set up after Bavarian police observed regular “hate posts” being published on a secret Facebook page between July and November 2015.

“Today’s raids make one thing clear. German police are committed to tackling hate speech and provocation on the Internet,” BKA chief Holger Münch said in the statement.

“Hate speech cannot be allowed to poison the public debate. Attacks on refugee homes are often the result of a radicalization which begins on the Internet.”

The statement said that the “secret Facebook group” “regularly committed offenses in the period from July to November, 2015.”

“In this context, the police departments in the federal states of Bremen, Thuringia, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, and Bavaria,” took part in the searches, the statement continued.

“The nationwide operation also serves to warn citizens about making right-wing statements on social networks,” the statement continued, advising the public that they can report “hate postings” to the police via “anonymous portals” set up by the state for that purpose.

The raids come just days after a German couple were found guilty of “incitement” and “sedition” for establishing a Facebook group which opposed the nonwhite invasion, the Merkur newspaper reported.

Peter M. (27) founded the group AFB (Anti refugee movement) about a year ago on Facebook, and he and his wife, Melanie M. (26) were the administrators of the group.

Their “hate speech” Facebook page’s founding statement was read in court:

War and economic refugees are flooding our country. They bring terror, fear, and sorrow. They rape our women and put our children at risk. Bring it to an end!

In just two months, 900 people joined the group, before it was reported to Facebook. The Facebook administration investigated the group, and found it to be perfectly legal.

“Anti-fascists” then reported the Facebook group to the police, who, after an “investigation,” deemed that the pair could be prosecuted.

In court, Peter M. said that “one cannot even express the least bit of criticism about refugees without being called a Nazi. All I wanted to do was to create a discussion forum where people could speak their mind about refugees.”

He added that he repeatedly checked the posts and deleted any “radical” statements so as to always comply with the law. This was, of course, confirmed by the fact that Facebook had allowed the group to continue.

After sentencing Peter M. to a nine month suspended prison sentence and his wife to a fine of €1,200 the judge said: “I hope you understand the seriousness of the situation. If you sit in front of me again, you will end up in jail.”