Law enforcement officials disrupted an attempt to attack the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) cage fighting event staged at the White House on Sunday with guns. explosive-laden drones, and multiple people were in custody, federal US authorities said.
The Department of Justice charged five men over an alleged plot to carry out an attack to kill government officials. others attendees at the “UFC Freedom 250” event on Sunday.
The FBI made arrests over the weekend in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska and California, it said, and an investigation remains ongoing.
The five men “conspired to plan. execute a mass casualty event”, the justice department alleged, and “allegedly planned to deploy drones armed with explosives” in and around the White House event. They “planned to deploy snipers to fire upon ‘high value targets’ within the fleeing crowd”, the department alleged.
The men were identified as Tycen C Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio; Bryan Omar Roa, 24, of Calimesa, California; Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, California; Daniel K Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri;. Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska.
“While the result represented the best of investigative work, it was also nothing out of the ordinary for this law enforcement team – we are built to detect, respond to,. bring to justice those who threaten the lives of American citizens – particularly during large gatherings like the historic UFC 250 fight,” said FBI director Kash Patel. “That’s exactly what we did here.”
Federal court records in Cincinnati, Ohio, that were reviewed by the Guardian identified Proper as one of the arrested suspects. Proper’s mother called the police on 10 June to report concerns about her son’s behavior, his purchase of firearms,. communications with individuals online, those court records said.
According to a federal criminal complaint filed against him. Proper said he had been in contact with individuals online since March. His mother said they claimed to be ex-military and Christian-based.
Local police then had Proper admitted to a hospital for homicidal ideation, and they contacted the FBI. In an interview with a case worker who was present. Proper told authorities that members of the group online believed the US was headed in the wrong direction. Proper also said. some did not want people involved with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – a former friend of Donald Trump – running the country.
Proper allegedly said he. others planned to first hold a demonstration outside the White House on Sunday as it hosted a mixed-martial arts extravaganza on the South Lawn. As that took place, the group would remotely fly drones “laden with unspecified explosives” over the fights. detonate them, Proper was accused of saying.
The explosions ostensibly would “force the crowd attending the … event. high value targets … to evacuate,” at which point attackers would fire on them with guns, Proper allegedly said.
“According to Proper. this attack was designed to ‘jumpstart’ a revolution in the United States,” the criminal complaint against him said.
Patel said in a post on X on Tuesday morning that “the rapid action of the FBI, our partners,. the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation” had resulted in multiple arrests while stopping the planned violence “cold”.
Trump. who celebrated his 80th birthday at the UFC event on Sunday, sought to tie the fights to larger celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Fox News reported that investigators had identified 23 people potentially involved in a plot to attack the event. Officials told the network that the alleged plan involved using explosive‑laden drones. snipers and even possibly storming the White House gate.
Patel tweeted out a link to the Fox story which said the plot had come to the FBI’s attention on 10 June. four days before the UFC event at the White House, triggering the first arrest in Cincinnati.
Fox quoted a statement from the Secret Service on Tuesday.
“In the days leading up to this weekend, our special agents, mission support personnel,. technical security teams worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” said Sean Curran, the Secret Service director. “Equally important to our protective mission is ensuring accountability through the justice system. To that end, our formal comments regarding the specifics of this case will be made through court filings.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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