A hardcore Nazi who posed with heavy weaponry shooting anti-fascist signs and built up an arsenal of guns and explosives is a free man today having been handed a community service sentence — as opposed to the 11 years in jail for terror offences that had been requested by prosecutors.

Miguel Antonio Reguera González was given the slap on the wrist, reduced from his original, already lenient, four-year sentence after a seven-year legal wrangle and despite being proven to have illegally possessed weapons, ammunition and material and explosive devices has not served a single day in prison.

The Leon Cacabelos resident was reported to the Civil guard in 2010 by Bierzo Antifa after he and some fascist friends uploaded a number of videos showing them firing various weapons in public spaces.

The self-styled “Rambo del Bierzo” were open in both the videos and on social media about their love for Adolf Hitler and Nazism, and Reguera was known to play white supremacist music loudly in his local neighbourhood. In his home he has plastered the walls with Nazi imagery, flags and symbols. He was a known member of local fascist cabal National Democratic Youth.

But following his initial arrest and the seizure of his arsenal, which included automatic weapons, incendiaries and even tank shells, it wouldn’t be until 2014 that his case was heard and he spent those years living normally with no precautionary measures taken to protect the public.

He was accused by the prosecution of illegally holding tank ammunition, illegal arms possession and possession of explosive substances and the formal hearing took place on November 23rd 2015, five years and nine months after his original arrest. He was sentenced to four years, less than half the standard sentence recommended by prosecutors.

Throughout the trial Reguera was backed by far-right groups in and around the town, with particularly strong backing from hardline rightist Cacabelos priest Jesús Álvarez, who used Mass to mobilise his parishioners in support of the gun-toting Nazi. The pastor, who is close friends with powerful people in the right-wing PP.

Community service for a terror conviction

Five months later the court issued a note on the sentence, saying that, given the extended nature of the court case, Reguera deserved “consideration” for the “undue delay.” In an effort to make it up to the convicted gun-wielding Nazi bomb collector, the court suspended his sentence for three years and replaced it with a ten-month community service order.

Cacabelos City Council expected to take over the management of the case, as is usually done with other prisoners. Some media even pointed out that he might be seen out sweeping the streets as part of his sentence. But the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions had other ideas.

Thus, in a letter dated June 16th, 2016 Reguera was given over to do his community service work for the benefit of the Community Caritas of Cacabelos, under the care of one pastor Jesús Álvarez — the same ultraconservative priest who had spent years trying to get him off the hook.