FBI arrests five suspects over planned drone and sniper assault
eric tucker
Updated ,first published
Washington: The FBI said it foiled a planned attack on the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts event held on the White House lawn over the weekend and detained five people, according to court documents.
The plan involved explosives-laden drones to attack the north side of the White House in an attempt to direct attendees to the exit, where snipers planned to open fire on fleeing politicians and others, the FBI alleged in court documents on Tuesday (US time).
Documents show that investigators seized firearms from some suspects last week and obtained encrypted text messages between about 20 participants who shared detailed maps and aerial photographs of the area and discussed the need for a “safe house” and escape routes after the intended attack.
But it’s unclear in court records how close the attackers might have come to executing the plan had they not thwarted it.
Some suspects or accomplices questioned by authorities said they did not intend to commit violence but instead planned to follow others. One of them said that he was going to the UFC event as a protester, but had to return home after his car broke down.
Although group chat participants talked about using drones rigged with explosives, charging documents do not reveal that any of them were identified by law enforcement.
Law enforcement learned of the possible threat on June 10, four days before a mixed martial arts demonstration on the South Lawn of the White House.
“Thanks to the rapid action of the FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and the alleged planned attacks were stopped,” FBI director Kash Patel said in a post on X on Tuesday.
Five people were arrested on federal charges from states including Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska and California.
Asked about Tuesday’s arrests, JD Vance said “there is more violent rhetoric coming from the left these days than from the right.”
But the charging documents reveal their views in a much more complex light; It depicts them as embracing a complex web of anti-government sentiment, anti-Semitic grievances, anger over US President Donald Trump’s administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, and conspiracy theories about a powerful elite who victimize and consume children.
Both Trump and Vance said Tuesday that they were not given advance notice of the plot. Speaking at the Group of Seven summit in Evian, France, Trump said he was unaware of the planned attack. “The attack I watched was warriors,” he said.
A senior Secret Service official suggested Tuesday that the investigation continues despite the arrests.
“Anyone who believes this case is being conducted in a bubble is naive,” Secret Service deputy director Matthew Quinn told reporters at an unrelated news conference. “Let me tell you, the Secret Service has directed this investigation from the beginning. I will tell you that it is ongoing. We chose not to leak this to protect the integrity of the investigation and the security plan.”
Fox News Digital reported that the group consisted of about 23 people.
Among those arrested was Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old Ohio man whose mother contacted local law enforcement last week with concerns about his firearm purchases and online communications, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.
Proper admitted to participating in the planning of an attack in an interview with law enforcement, according to the affidavit, which said some members of the group began communicating with each other through a TikTok group called “Pioneer of the Ancients” last March.
“Members of the group stated that they wanted to protect the United States, which they believed was heading in the wrong direction,” the affidavit says. “Members of the group believed that the United States needed to be destroyed so that it could be rebuilt. Some expressed a desire that people associated with Jeffrey Epstein should not rule the country.”
An attorney for Proper, who faces a detention hearing Wednesday and is charged with crimes including firearms offenses and attempted murder of a U.S. officer or employee, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The issue of logistics was discussed through Signal, an app that uses end-to-end encryption for messaging and calling services, through a primary chat and smaller side chats consisting of “about 19 people,” officials said.
In messages obtained from his phone program, Proper discussed the plot with others and said several Republican lawmakers should be targeted because they received donations from causes supporting Israel, the affidavit said.
Proper reportedly told law enforcement that he planned to go to the meeting point in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where the group would gather, with a gun and body armor. He said he did not intend to shoot people in the White House, but others in the group did, the affidavit said.
Officials said the plan called for the use of drones to be detonated on the north side of the White House, which would lead to a rapid evacuation into the line of fire of snipers waiting in the attack, which Proper said was designed to “jumpstart” a revolution in the United States.
Investigators examining Proper’s phone and TikTok account also identified other suspects who helped develop the plans.
Michael Alan Thomas told authorities that he considered himself the “planner and advisor of the group” and wanted to guide and instruct others on how to carry out the attacks, even though he was not willing to take action himself. Thomas said the group’s planned attacks were designed to overthrow the U.S. government, an FBI agent said in an affidavit.
The agent said Thomas believes the U.S. government is “run by an elite group of individuals who sacrifice and consume babies, who also have deep ties to Jeffery Epstein and are currently protected by President Donald Trump.”
Another suspect, Bryan Omar Roa, also of California, told the FBI that he planned to attend the event as “protesters” but had to return home because his car broke down, an agent said.
It was not immediately clear who his lawyers were.
The other two suspects were identified as Daniel K. Eskridge of Missouri, who authorities said in a group chat that the target of the attack must be “someone large and known to the majority of the country,” and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez of Nebraska, who the FBI said posted detailed plans in the group chat. Alvarez’s attorney declined to comment, and Eskridge’s attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Trump, who celebrated his 80th birthday at a UFC event on Sunday, was friends with Epstein years ago but said he ended their relationship before the disgraced financier’s crimes were revealed. In 2019, Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
AP, Reuters
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