---
category: Organizations
created: 2026-05-22
summary: RapeWaffen Division was a Telegram-based O9A nexion promoting rape and murder
  as ideological weapons, whose membership included U.S. Army soldier Ethan Phelan
  Melzer, convicted in 2022 for transmitting classified military intelligence to enable
  a mass-casualty attack on his unit.
tags:
- Organization
- O9A
- AtomwaffenDivision
- NeoNazi
- Accelerationism
- DomesticTerrorism
- USA
- UK
updated: 2026-05-22
---

RapeWaffen Division was a decentralized online cell operating within the [Order of Nine Angles](/organizations/order-of-nine-angles/) (O9A) framework, organized primarily through encrypted Telegram channels. The name combined the neo-Nazi accelerationist branding of [Atomwaffen Division](/organizations/atomwaffen-division/) with O9A's doctrinal claim that rape and murder are weapons in its pursuit of ideological and civilizational collapse. The group is most significant in the public record as the nexion in which U.S. Army soldier [Ethan Phelan Melzer](/people/ethan-phelan-melzer/) was active when he transmitted classified intelligence about his unit's deployment to O9A contacts in 2020.[^1]

### Structure and Ideology

O9A's organizational model uses the term "nexion" for local cells, which operate with significant autonomy under a shared ideological framework derived from the writings of O9A founder [David Myatt](/people/david-myatt/) and subsequent O9A texts. RapeWaffen Division was a nexion that combined the [Insight Roles](/concepts/insight-roles/) doctrine (which instructs initiates to commit criminal acts as a form of spiritual progression) with Atomwaffen-style accelerationism and an explicit embrace of sexual violence as a weapon. The group's stated beliefs were "O9A satanism and Esoteric Rapistism," according to investigative mapping of extremist Telegram channels.[^2]

The RapeWaffen Division Telegram channel appears to have functioned as a radicalization and recruitment environment for individuals simultaneously affiliated with or adjacent to Atomwaffen Division. Melzer described himself as having "already self-initiated" into O9A before joining the channel, using the alias "Etil Reggad." He became sufficiently active in the channel's leadership that he is described in court documents as having taken on a leadership role within it.[^1]

### The Melzer Case

Melzer's participation in RapeWaffen Division is the basis for the most significant documented case of O9A military penetration in the public record. In May 2020, while with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy and preparing for a deployment to [Turkey](/places/turkey/), Melzer transmitted classified information about his unit's locations, personnel strength, troop movements, and defensive capabilities to RapeWaffen Division members via Telegram. The channel's CC-1, a UK-based O9A contact identified only by the CC-1 designation in court documents, relayed the intelligence to a second co-conspirator, CC-2, with the stated purpose of enabling a mass-casualty attack combining O9A members and Al-Qaeda-affiliated forces.

The FBI had embedded an operative in the RapeWaffen Division channel. The operative, whom Melzer believed was a fellow O9A member with operational access to jihadist networks, was the primary recipient of Melzer's intelligence disclosures. The FBI arrested Melzer on June 10, 2020, before the planned deployment. Melzer was charged in Southern District of New York case 1:20-cr-00314-GHW and pleaded guilty on June 24, 2022. He was sentenced to 45 years by U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods on March 6, 2023.[^3]

### UK Nexus and Uncharged Co-Conspirators

The superseding indictment described CC-1 as UK-based. No UK co-conspirator was publicly charged in an open-court proceeding in the United States as of 2026. Whether UK counter-terrorism authorities pursued parallel proceedings has not been confirmed in open sources. O9A has historically been permitted to operate openly in the United Kingdom, and multiple UK prosecutions of O9A-adjacent individuals have occurred, but none have been publicly linked to the RapeWaffen Division Telegram channel specifically.[^4]

[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-SDNY. "U.S. Army Soldier Charged With Terrorism Offenses For Planning Deadly Ambush On Service Members In His Unit." June 2020. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/us-army-soldier-charged-terrorism-offenses-planning-deadly-ambush-service-members-his
[^2]: Vice News. "US Soldier Jailed for Satanic Neo-Nazi Plot to Kill Troops in Al Qaeda Attack." 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/order-of-nine-angles-neo-neo-nazi-ethan-melzer-arrest/
[^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-SDNY. "Former U.S. Army Soldier Sentenced To 45 Years In Prison For Attempting To Murder Fellow Service Members In Deadly Ambush." March 2023. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-us-army-soldier-sentenced-45-years-prison-attempting-murder-fellow-service; United States v. Melzer, 1:20-cr-00314-GHW (S.D.N.Y. 2022).
[^4]: New Statesman. "A Nazi-Satanist Cult Is Fuelling Far-Right Groups, Overlooked by UK Authorities." March 2020. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2020/03/nazi-satanist-cult-fuelling-far-right-terrorist-groups-overlooked-uk-authorities-order-nine-angles