NEW YORK (AP) — The leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group who tried to recruit an undercover federal agent to dress as Santa Claus and hand out poisoned candy to Jewish children and racial minorities has pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes.

Federal prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of up to 18 years for Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 22-year-old from the Republic of Georgia who also goes by “Commander Butcher.” He pleaded guilty Monday before a federal judge in Brooklyn to soliciting violent felonies and distributing information about making bombs and ricin.

Prosecutors described Chkhikvishvili as the leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, an international extremist group that adheres to a “neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community and other groups it deems ‘undesirables.’”

They said the group’s violent solicitations — promoted through Telegram channels and outlined a manifesto called the “Hater’s Handbook” — appear to have inspired multiple real-life killings, including a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this year that left a 16-year-old student dead.

He was arrested in July 2024 in Moldova. He was extradited to the United States in May.

Two men were arrested in what police say was a murder-for-hire plot that left a Riverside man dead early Monday, Sept. 29.

Officers responded around 4:30 a.m. to an automotive business in the 2900 block of Orange Street after a woman reported her boyfriend had just been shot, the department said Tuesday in a statement. They found the victim, Horacio Montero Jr. of Riverside, 27, in a trailer suffering from gunshot wounds.

Firefighter-paramedics provided medical aid before Montero was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Investigators identified Kenny Andrew Johnson, 40, of Riverside as a suspect, and arrested him later that morning.

Through their investigation, detectives determined the shooting was a murder-for-hire scheme and identified a second suspect, Alonzo Jeffery Monk Jr. of Colton, 43, who was arrested Oct. 2 in Colton.

Police believe Monk fired the shots, Officer Ryan Railsback said. Detectives allege Johnson conspired with Monk to have Montero killed, though it’s not clear why Johnson wanted to harm him, and the motive remains under investigation.

Both men were booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and were being held without bail.

Two individuals were arrested in connection with an alleged bomb attack plot targeting Lady Gaga’s free concert on Copacabana Beach, Brazilian Civil Police confirmed.

The suspects — one adult male detained in Rio Grande do Sul and a teenager arrested in Rio de Janeiro — are both reported fans of Lady Gaga and were allegedly planning to use improvised explosives, including Molotov cocktails, authorities said. No explosives were found during the operation, according to police.

Authorities say the two are part of an online group that promotes hate speech and attempts to recruit other teenagers while encouraging acts of violence. One of the suspects was also found in possession of child pornography, police allege.

The arrests were part of Operation Fake Monsters, a joint investigation led by the Brazilian Justice Ministry, Federal Police, and digital intelligence services. The operation aimed to preempt any threat ahead of the singer’s historic performance on Saturday night, which drew over two million fans to Rio’s iconic beachfront.

Despite the threat, the concert proceeded without incident.

The civil police in Rio de Janeiro released a heavily produced video Sunday detailing the police operation, which involved executing search warrants in several cities including Rio, Niterói, Duque de Caxias, and Macaé.

“Those involved in virtually recruiting participants to carry out attacks using improvised explosives were identified — the plan aimed to gain notoriety on social media,” the civil police said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Lady Gaga said the singer and her team did not know about the operation until Sunday.

“We learned about this alleged threat via media reports this morning,” the statement said. “Prior to and during the show, there were no known safety concerns, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks. Her team worked closely with law enforcement throughout the planning and execution of the concert and all parties were confident in the safety measures in place.”

-ABC News’ Monica Escobedo contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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Three people have been charged in an alleged Iran-linked plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, an Iranian-American activist and two Jewish Americans living in New York, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in New York.

Farhad Shakeri, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt are charged with murder-for-hire, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Rivera and Loadholt have been arrested, while Shakeri, who the FBI described as an “asset” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is believed to be in Tehran.

The IRGC tasked Shakeri with surveilling and killing Trump to avenge the death of Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020, according to the complaint.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran. The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald J. Trump,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the charges.

Shakeri emigrated to the United States but was deported in 2008 after serving prison time for robbery, according to the Justice Department. While in prison, he met Rivera and Loadholt and hired them to target an Iranian American activist living in Brooklyn, according to the complaint.

While she is not named in the complaint, the activist matches the description of Masih Alinejad, a prolific journalist and human rights activist who has been critical of the Iranian government and targeted in multiple plots. Federal prosecutors announced criminal charges last month against IRGC Brig. Gen. Ruhollah Bazghandi in connection with an alleged murder plot against Alinejad.

Alinejad later posted on social media that she was one of the targets, writing, “I am shocked. I just learned from the @FBI that two men were arrested yesterday in a new plot to kill me at Fairfield University, where I was scheduled to give a talk.”

The IRGC also tasked Shakeri with carrying out other assassinations against U.S. and Israeli citizens located in the United States, including Trump, the complaint alleges.

In mid- to late-September, Shakeri told the FBI that the IRGC official instructed him “to put aside his other efforts” and “focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating former President of the United States Donald J. Trump,” the complaint said. When Shakeri told his handler it would cost a lot of money, the IRGC official is quoted as responding “we have already spent a lot of money … so the money’s not an issue.”

Shakeri told the FBI that during an Oct. 7 meeting with his IRGC handler he was asked to provide a plan within seven days to kill Trump. If it could not be done in that timeframe, the IRGC would pause its plan to kill Trump until after the election “because IRGC Official-1 assessed that [Trump] would lose the election and, afterward, it would easier to assassinate [Trump],” the complaint said.

He also stated he was tasked with surveilling two Jewish-American citizens residing in New York City and was offered $500,000 by an IRGC official for the murder of either victim, according to the complaint. He was also tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka, the complaint said.

“Actors directed by the Government of Iran continue to target our citizens, including President-elect Trump, on U.S. soil and abroad. This has to stop,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Today’s charges are another message to those who continue in their efforts — we will remain unrelenting in our pursuit of bad actors, no matter where they reside, and will stop at nothing to bring to justice those who harm our safety and security.”

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced criminal charges against an Indian government employee Thursday in connection with a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.

Vikash Yadav remains at large but faces murder-for-hire charges in federal court.

The criminal case was announced the same week as two members of an Indian inquiry committee investigating the plot were in Washington to meet with U.S. officials about the investigation. Also this week, Canada said it had identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in the assassination of a Sikh activist there and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday.

“The Justice Department will be relentless in holding accountable any person — regardless of their position or proximity to power — who seeks to harm and silence American citizens,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the charges.

The murder-for-hire plot was first disclosed by federal prosecutors last year when they announced charges against a man, Nikhil Gupta, who was recruited by a then-unidentified Indian government employee to orchestrate the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in New York.

Gupta was extradited to the United States in June from the Czech Republic after his arrest in Prague last year.

In a statement, the intended victim, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, said the indictment means the U.S. government has “reassured its commitment to fundamental constitutional duty to protect the life, liberty and freedom of expression of the U.S. Citizen at home and abroad.”

He added, “The attempt on my life on American Soil is the blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism which has become a challenge to America’s sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy, which unequivocally proves that India believes in using bullets while pro Khalistan Sikhs believe in ballots.”

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Neumeister reported from New York.