Fort Liberty Soldier Gets Booted After Indictment for Weapons Trafficking, Lying About White Nationalist Ties

A paratrooper at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, who was indicted last week on charges of weapons trafficking and lying about his association with a white nationalist group has been removed from the Army, Col. Mary Ricks, a service spokesperson, said Tuesday.

Spc. Kai Nix was indicted Aug. 14 by a grand jury and arrested the following day by federal authorities amid a joint investigation between the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Army Criminal Investigation Division. Nix served as an infantryman at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 501st Infantry Regiment.

Nix allegedly lied on a federal application for a security clearance, known as a Standard Form 86, in which he said he had never been a member of a "group dedicated to the use of violence or force to overthrow the United States government." Prosecutors say he was a member of a group at the time he signed the form in August 2022, when he initially enlisted.

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Nix was identified as a member of the Patriot Front, operating under the pseudonym Patrick North Carolina, according to reporting from The New Yorker.

Patriot Front is a white nationalist group known for high-profile protests with its uniformed members in khakis, polos and white masks. It advocates for white men to rule the U.S. and uses explicitly antisemitic and white supremacist language.

Nix allegedly ran a Patriot Front account on Telegram, an online encrypted messaging service, where he tried to recruit new members.

Court records show that, from late 2023 through February, Nix sold at least two stolen firearms, but those weapons were not stolen from the Army, according to Ricks. It's unclear what type of firearms he allegedly sold.

Nix is being held in pre-trial confinement in Raleigh, North Carolina. His public defender could not be reached for comment. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

A Military.com investigation found that service members and veterans are no more or less likely to join extremist organizations, but are more likely to be targets for recruitment -- as members with a military background can serve as force multipliers, bringing legitimacy and their military training to those radical groups.

The news comes a month after another former 82nd Airborne Division soldier was released from prison after serving a three-month sentence following a plea deal. Spc. Killian Ryan, an artilleryman, said he joined the Army to become proficient at killing Black people. Before law enforcement concluded their investigation, Ryan was already being removed from the Army for issues related to drinking and driving.

Court records show that in 2022 Ryan was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to one charge of knowingly making a false statement on his security clearance form.

On his form, he lied about not having contact with his father, who has felony convictions related to auto theft and drug violations. But investigators found social media accounts linked to Ryan with a slew of racist imagery and statements.

"I serve for combat experience so I'm more proficient in killing n-----s," Ryan wrote in one social media post on May 27, 2021, court records show. That comment was posted roughly two weeks after he enlisted in the Army.

His personal email address was "NaziAce1488," a reference to white supremacy and Adolf Hitler. The number 14 represents the number of words in the phrase, "We must secure the existence of our people and the future for white children," coined by David Lane, a convicted felon and leader of the defunct white supremacist terrorist organization The Order. The number 88 stands for "Heil Hitler," with H being the eighth letter of the alphabet.

Ryan had served with the 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery, and the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment. He is on probation until May 2027.

Related: The Threat from Extremist Groups Is Growing. Service Members and Vets Are Getting Sucked into the Violence.