Five suspects arrested in June allegedly planned to detonate explosive-laden drones above a crowd at the White House during UFC Freedom 250, then gun down President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Elon Musk as they fled to a predetermined evacuation zone, all while sniper teams waited to pick off Secret Service agents, National Guard members, and SWAT officers who responded.
That is the picture prosecutors painted in court documents whose details officials released Tuesday. The alleged scheme, driven by what investigators described as extreme anti-government ideology, antisemitic beliefs, and satanic conspiracy theories, amounts to one of the most detailed domestic attack plots disclosed in years.
The FBI disrupted the plan and swept up the suspects across multiple states in June, Fox News Digital reported. The five men charged range in age from 19 to 32 and hail from Ohio, California, Missouri, and Nebraska. Prosecutors identified 31-year-old Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez of Omaha, Nebraska, as the online ringleader.
Charging documents allege the group communicated through an encrypted group chat in which Alvarez assigned coded references to their intended targets. Trump was designated "1." Vance was "2." Netanyahu was "N." Musk was simply "Musk."
The plan, as prosecutors describe it, had multiple phases. First, the suspects intended to launch explosive-laden drones over the UFC arena on the north side of the White House and detonate them above the crowd. The blast was supposed to force attendees and what the court documents call "high-value targets" to flee toward a "southern evacuation point."
That evacuation zone was the real trap. Authorities say five separate sniper teams were to cover the area. Charging documents state the snipers were instructed to "initiate their part of the plan eliminating HVTs first then the retaliatory forces such as SS [Secret Service], NG [National Guard], and swat."
The suspects allegedly understood the scale of the response they would provoke. One member of the group told the others the attack would cause authorities to "send everything they have to hunt us." They pressed forward anyway, according to investigators.
As we previously reported when the arrests first came to light, the FBI's disruption of the plot prevented what prosecutors now characterize as a planned "mass casualty event."
The suspects did not stop at attack logistics. Investigators say they began identifying safe houses and constructing makeshift bunkers to use after the assault.
Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri, allegedly told the group in late May that his rural six-acre property would be converted into a safe house with a hidden bunker concealed beneath the floorboards of a shed. Alvarez allegedly identified an abandoned brick church in Nebraska as a secondary fallback location.
The group also allegedly explored stealing military ordnance to arm themselves further. A co-conspirator identified the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant in Parsons, Kansas, as the "most viable" target among several facilities under consideration. Eskridge allegedly claimed he had "a guy digging into Parsons assembly facility" to gather on-the-ground intelligence ahead of a planned theft.
Both Eskridge and 32-year-old Michael Alan Thomas of California allegedly encouraged group members to pitch in to raise $1,300 to purchase drones and explosive charges, the core weapons of the first phase of the attack.
The youngest suspect, 19-year-old Tycen C. Proper of Ohio, allegedly compiled a target list containing 46 individuals. Court records also allege that Proper and Eskridge actively researched targets using the website "TrackAIPAC.com."
Proper allegedly quit his job and spent roughly $3,000 of his graduation money to purchase thousands of rounds of ammunition, ballistic plates, an AR-style rifle, and a bullpup rifle painted with an American flag. Investigators say he acquired several boxes of ammunition estimated at thousands of rounds and two plate carriers with AR-style magazines.
The scope of the alleged preparations, from encrypted communications to weapons stockpiling to safe-house construction, suggests a group that moved well beyond idle talk.
Proper also allegedly authored writings and kept a journal outlining his belief that a larger group worships a demonic figure and engages in ritual sacrifice of children. Thomas, for his part, told FBI agents he believed the U.S. government is controlled by a secret elite protected by the president that sacrifices and consumes infants.
Thomas showed no sign of backing down after the arrests. He told investigators:
"We will try to break them out of jail if we need to."
That statement captures the mindset prosecutors are confronting: suspects who allegedly anticipated a massive law-enforcement response, planned for it, and still moved ahead.
Several important questions remain open. The specific criminal charges filed against each suspect have not been detailed in the public disclosures so far. The court documents referenced by prosecutors have not been fully released, and no case numbers or docket information have been made public.
The FBI's video briefing on the case referenced 23 suspects arrested, while the detailed account names five. Whether the remaining individuals face related charges or played peripheral roles has not been clarified.
It is also unclear whether investigators seized the alleged drones, explosive charges, firearms, ammunition, and ballistic plates, or where and when any such seizures occurred. No injuries or property damage were reported, the plot was disrupted before it could be carried out.
The UFC Freedom 250 event itself went forward at the White House on Sunday without incident. But the political controversy surrounding the White House UFC event now looks trivial against the backdrop of what federal agents say they prevented.
The bureau has faced sustained criticism from the right in recent years over perceived politicization. But cases like this one remind Americans what the FBI exists to do: identify lethal threats and stop them before the body count starts. The agency's enforcement operations carry weight when they protect the president and the public from an alleged multi-state conspiracy to commit mass murder.
Five men, spread across four states, allegedly coordinated through encrypted channels, stockpiled weapons, built bunkers, assigned coded names to the president and other leaders, and mapped out a layered ambush designed to overwhelm even the Secret Service. Investigators say the motive was a toxic stew of anti-government extremism, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories about satanic elites.
The details in the charging documents read less like a fringe fantasy and more like an operational plan. Drones over the north side of the White House. Detonation above the crowd. A forced evacuation into a prepared zone. Five sniper teams. Instructions to eliminate high-value targets first, then turn on the security forces.
That the plan never reached execution is a credit to the agents who tracked it. That it reached the planning stage it did is a warning that should not be dismissed.
When people tell you what they intend to do, and then spend their graduation money on rifles and ammunition to do it, the only responsible answer is handcuffs, not hand-wringing.
