Teenager planned ISIS-inspired ‘bomb drone’ terror attack at Pride festival, but authorities reportedly thwarted it
An Arizona teenager plotted an ISIS-inspired terror attack on the Phoenix Pride Festival, according to authorities. The alleged terror plot reportedly involved an explosive remote-controlled drone, but local authorities and the FBI said they thwarted the purported attack.
Marvin Aneer Jalo, 17, was arrested Friday — which coincided with the first day of LGBTQ events in the annual Phoenix Pride Festival, which culminated with the annual parade Sunday.
‘Bomb 2024 Pride Parade and take over USA.’
A grand jury indicted Jalo, of Peoria, on two class 2 felonies: one count of terrorism and one count of conspiracy to commit terrorism. Jalo will be tried as an adult. He was being held on a $1 million cash-only bond.
According to a press release from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Jalo “participated in online chat rooms discussing the supplies necessary to make an improvised explosive device and then had those supplies shipped to him” between Nov. 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024.
“He discussed his intent to make TATP (triacetone triperoxide), an unstable explosive that can propel shrapnel and other dangerous items outward, causing serious injury or death to people in the area,” according to the attorney’s office.
A search warrant on Jalo’s phone reportedly revealed an instructional video of an ISIS fighter making the TATP.
Officials said Jalo “posted various videos of himself making the TATP” after the ingredients for the explosives were delivered to him in November 2023. Months after receiving the explosive ingredients, Jalo allegedly was “continuing to reference a desire to use those explosives.”
Prosecutors claimed Jalo had “expressed his plan to attack the Phoenix Pride Festival” that took place this month.
KTVK-TV reported that Jalo befriended alleged extremists online and wrote in one post that they could “bomb 2024 Pride Parade and take over USA.”
Jalo’s mother reportedly told police that she got into an argument with her son after she discovered him “in chat rooms, with the use of his cell phone, speaking with other subjects whom she described as terrorists, who had been conspiring to conduct a possible attack.”
The indictment claims that Jalo “intentionally or knowingly did provide advice, assistance, direction or management of an act of terrorism to further the goals, desires, aims, public pronouncements, manifestos or political objective of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.”
The station noted that investigators discovered chat messages in which Jalo allegedly planned to create a “bomb drone” by using a remote-controlled flying vehicle armed with explosives.
‘I can tell you that this is an individual who does indicate that he does have some very radical ideas.’
According to prosecutors, Jalo was on Telegram where he had “conversations about making an RC-controlled bomb and attacking various targets, including in New York City.”
“[Jalo] told police that he needed to gather more knowledge and better prepare himself before taking part in a terrorist event,” according to KSAZ-TV.
The Phoenix Pride Festival is self-described as “an annual celebratory and educational event commemorating the ‘Stonewall Riots,’ acknowledged as the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. The Festival & Parade Celebration brings the entire local LGBT community together to celebrate openly and proudly with the greater public.”
Phoenix Pride spokesperson Jeremy Helfgot said, “It was stopped. It was stopped safely. It was stopped in time, and our events were able to proceed safely and without incident, and that’s something important to the confidence of the community to know that we have partners who are watching our back. We have to continue to fight for the rights that don’t yet exist to protect all of the most vulnerable among our community, and to continue to ward off the kinds of threats that we saw this weekend, born out of hatred, born out of ignorance, born out of spite.”
Arizona Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs was the grand marshal of this year’s Phoenix Pride Parade and told KTVK, “I’m shocked and horrified at the alleged plot to attack innocent Arizonans and members of the LGBTQ community who attended the Phoenix Pride festival, and I’m grateful for the swift actions taken by law enforcement to prevent a potential tragedy.”
The investigation that led to the teen’s arrest was conducted by the Investigations Unit of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, the FBI Phoenix Field Office, and the Buckeye and Glendale Police Departments.
“I can tell you that this is an individual who does indicate that he does have some very radical ideas. He is homophobic in his philosophy. He definitely took steps in the process of putting together something that would act as an explosive,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.
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