FAFO: Alleged Plot to Attack White House UFC Event With Explosive Drones and Snipers…

Federal authorities say they narrowly stopped a coordinated mass casualty attack aimed at the UFC Freedom 250 event held on the White House South Lawn, an operation that allegedly involved explosive-laden drones, sniper teams, and a plan to gun down fleeing spectators and government officials.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced Tuesday that a multi-state operation led to the arrest of five men in connection with the plot, which he said was “stopped cold” thanks to rapid coordination between the FBI, the Department of Justice, and local law enforcement partners across several states.

The arrests came just two days after President Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday at the event, which doubled as part of the broader 250th anniversary celebrations marking the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

According to court documents unsealed this week, the conspirators discussed flying small drones loaded with explosives over the north side of the arena, detonating them to trigger a mass evacuation, and then directing the panicked crowd south into the line of fire of pre-positioned snipers.

A second wave of the attack allegedly called for storming a White House security checkpoint once the chaos began.

The Secret Service said it worked closely with the FBI throughout the investigation.

Director Sean Curran said in a statement that his agency’s special agents, technical security teams, and mission support personnel worked around the clock in the days before the event to identify those responsible and hold them accountable.

The plot first came to the attention of law enforcement through an unlikely source: a worried mother.

Investigators say the mother of Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old from Danville, Ohio, contacted local authorities after growing alarmed by her son’s recent firearms purchases and his online communications with a group claiming to be former military members.

The sheriff’s office then alerted the FBI.

Proper was interviewed by federal investigators on June 11 at a medical facility.

According to the criminal complaint, he admitted to planning a coordinated attack timed for June 14, the day of the UFC card, and said the goal was to “jump start” a revolution against the federal government.

He told agents that while he personally did not intend to shoot anyone, other members of the group were prepared to use lethal force.

Investigators say the plotters had been communicating since around March, first through open channels before more committed members shifted to an encrypted messaging app.

By early June, the group’s planning had narrowed specifically onto the UFC card at the White House, with one large Signal chat including roughly 19 to 23 participants and several smaller breakout groups coordinating logistics.

Court filings describe an organizational structure with members sorted into tiers, ranging from those willing to put themselves in physical danger to getaway drivers, drone operators, supply coordinators, and financial backers.

Daniel Eskridge, a 32 year old from Kidder, Missouri, allegedly told the group they needed roughly 1,300 dollars to acquire drones and explosive charges.

Federal agents identified Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska, as the user behind the online alias “Shepherd,” whom Proper described as the group’s chief tactical organizer and a suspected former member of the military.

According to the complaint, Alvarez posted detailed instructions for staging sniper and drone positions and discussed building as many explosive capable drones as the group could manage.

Alvarez also allegedly offered a rendezvous point at an old church in Nebraska to serve as a safe zone once the operation concluded.

Eskridge, for his part, told fellow members he was converting his garage into a safe house and digging a bunker beneath the floor of his shed, according to court records.

Two additional suspects, Bryan Omar Roa, 24, and Michael Alan Thomas, 32, both of California, were also taken into custody.

When agents searched Thomas’s residence on June 13, they recovered a rifle, extended ammunition magazines, roughly 180 rounds of ammunition, and a handgun.

The complaints allege the group’s stated targets extended well beyond the general crowd.

Messages reviewed by the FBI reportedly named President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, and members of Congress identified by the group as supportive of Israel as “high value targets.”

Online chatter also referenced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although he did not attend the event and his attendance appears to have been based on unconfirmed rumors circulating among the plotters.

Several of the suspects allegedly planned to travel to Fredericksburg, Virginia, on June 12 or 13 to stage before moving on the capital.

Proper told investigators he intended to bring an AR-15 style rifle, body armor, and ammunition to the meeting point.

Federal prosecutors have charged the men with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy against the United States, attempted murder of a federal officer, and various firearms violations, depending on each defendant’s alleged role.

All five remain in custody pending further proceedings.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche praised the investigators involved, saying the FBI, its law enforcement partners, and federal prosecutors did what they do “every day” to keep the country safe by disrupting the plan before it could be carried out.

He added that the department would take aggressive action against anyone who incites or plans acts of political violence.

The disrupted plot comes after the FBI and Department of Homeland Security had already flagged the UFC event earlier in the month as an “attractive symbolic target” in an internal security bulletin, though officials said there was no specific credible threat identified at that time.

That assessment proved prescient once the investigation into Proper’s online activity widened.

Court papers indicate that several of those involved expressed fringe anti government grievances and made antisemitic remarks in their communications, with some explicitly tying their targeting decisions to perceived support for Israel among the officials they hoped to kill.

Multiple sources told reporters that all of those arrested are American citizens and that investigators have found no indication of a foreign nexus driving the plot.

The investigation, which authorities describe as ongoing, has stretched across at least a dozen FBI field offices and involved agents in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and California.

An initial review of one suspect’s phone reportedly identified more than 20 additional Signal users who may have had knowledge of or involvement in the planning, suggesting the bureau’s work is far from finished.

President Trump, who was attending the G7 summit in Evian les Bains, France, when the arrests were announced, told reporters he had not yet been briefed on the details of the thwarted attack.