Federal authorities said Tuesday that they disrupted a plot last year to have a person dressed as Santa Claus give out poisoned candy to racial minorities in New York City.

Authorities said the plot also envisioned sending ricin-laced candy to Jewish schools in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors secured an indictment Monday against Michail Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian citizen whom they say was the mastermind behind the plot and ran the Maniac Murder Cult, a hate group determined to attack minorities.

“His goal was to spread hatred, fear and destruction by encouraging bombings, arson and even poisoning children, for the purpose of harming racial minorities, the Jewish community and homeless individuals,” said Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Mr. Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Moldova on July 6 pursuant to an Interpol notice.

In 2022, he was in the U.S., where he stayed with his grandmother in Brooklyn, and tried to recruit people for his plots.

One of those he recruited was an undercover FBI employee who asked to join the murder cult in September 2023. Mr. Chkhikvishvili then encouraged the FBI operative to take part in the New Year’s Eve attack using Santa Claus to hand out poisoned candy “to many racial minorities and traitors.”

“And most important it must be done on 31 December,” Mr. Chkhikvishvili wrote in a plan authorities included in court papers. “You can also install Santa socks with candies in random apartments with no much control.”

He said ricin would be the simplest poison to use, and he shared instructions on how to mix lethal doses of poison.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.