An 18-year-old has been charged with allegedly performing two separate Nazi salutes at Canberra shopping centres and putting up “propaganda-style stickers” in recent months.

The man is expected to appear before ACT magistrates court on Friday, where police will allege in October a member of the public confronted him as he stuck stickers up at a shopping centre and then performed a Nazi salute before leaving the centre.

The man allegedly performed another Nazi salute on 12 December at a different shopping centre, police said.

The man will also be charged with trespassing at the Australian National University multiple times in August and September where he “stuck propaganda-style stickers on buildings and other property”, police said.

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The man has also been charged with two counts of damaging commonwealth property.

A national security investigations team from the Australian federal police (AFP) executed a search warrant at a property in the Canberra suburb of Weston on Wednesday, where they seized mobile phones, a computer, stickers, storage devices, a video camera and clothing.

The assistant commissioner of the AFP’s counter-terrorism and special investigations, Stephen Nutt, said antisemitism was not tolerated in Australia.

“Anyone allegedly performing Nazi salutes is displaying criminal behaviour that brings pain and anguish to the Jewish community and divides Australian society,” Nutt said.

He said the national security investigations team was established in September to target those causing “high harm to Australia’s social cohesion including attempts to vilify marginalised communities”.

“Antisemitism is a cancer that requires swift and direct action, which is what the AFP is continuing to do,” Nutt said. “Along with our law enforcement partners, we are committed to stopping hate, division and violence in the community.”

Police warned one of the signs a person may be susceptible to radicalisation is if they have distanced themselves from their usual friends and family members.

Other signs include an increase in the extremist nature of their rhetoric or propaganda they share; a child using hateful or emotionally charged language; developing a fixation on conspiracy theories or contentious social issues; displaying extreme reaction to certain news or politics; or spending increasing amounts of time in fringe forums on the internet, police said.