A Riverside County man is among five individuals across the country charged with plotting an attack using explosives-laden drones during Sunday’s Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Bryan Omar Roa, 24, of Calimesa is charged with conspiracy to commit murder for allegedly colluding in online chats to carry out the criminal offenses.
“The FBI, our law enforcement partners and our U.S. attorneys did what they do every day to make America safe through quick response and vigilance in investigating, disrupting and dismantling this alleged plan before it could be carried out,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday. “We will take immediate and aggressive action to identify and prosecute those who incite and plan acts of violence.”
The other defendants are Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri, Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska.
Thomas’ Pinon Hills home is near Phelan in San Bernardino County.
The conspirators allegedly concocted the plot after joining an online chat group titled “Vanguard of the Old Republic,” accessible via TikTok and Signal, according to the U.S. Department of Justice complaint.
Thomas and Proper were evidently leaders of the group, which by all accounts laid out in court papers lacked a clear set of realistic parameters to achieve the desired objective of inflicting mass casualties.
“I got a possible target,” Proper allegedly said in one communication, identifying a U.S. senator, then allegedly proceeding to state that the senator had “taken money from the pro-Israel lobby and supports them.”
On May 31, Proper sent messages, apparently via unsecured applications and networks, declaring, “These are people we’re going to focus on,” prosecutors said.
Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250, hosted on the White House lawn, became the conspirators’ focus barely over a month ago, though several of them may have been communicating going back to February, according to the complaint.
Proper was selecting potential targets by the size of their dollar intake from pro-Israel groups, published for public scrutiny via the web portal TrackAIPAC.com, prosecutors said.
“Proper told law enforcement that there would be Signal chats on his cell phone and that the members of this group were primarily recruited through TikTok,” the complaint stated. “Once an individual had proven himself to an established member of the (Vanguard of the Old Republic) group on TikTok, they were then transitioned to a vetted (and more secure) Signal chat.”
None of the individuals had met personally, except possibly Roa and Thomas, documents indicated. The two were additionally carrying on conversations via an internet chat room, the complaint said.
“To be clear, I intend to escalate this group, and I don’t want to take … years to do it,” Proper remarked on May 21, according to the complaint. “Consider yourselves an enemy of the state.”
Roa allegedly suggested “how someone could hypothetically use drones armed with explosives to bomb buildings near the White House, which would cause mass panic with limited deaths at UFC Freedom 250,” according to the Justice Department’s narrative.
Thomas allegedly outlined scenarios in which members would execute tasks by “tier” qualification.
One tier would consist of “getaway drivers, drone operators and direct support,” he allegedly wrote. A member of another tier would deliver “indirect support, recruitment, supply, logistics, tech … still actively contributing, but most likely safe from legal issues,” he allegedly said.
The individuals in “tier 1” would be at the forefront, flying drones with explosives or acting as snipers, the complaint alleged.
“You will be sacrificing for your country and carrying a brunt of the weight,” Thomas allegedly wrote. “We will make sure (to) have an escape plan, backup plan, transportation, three meals a day.”
FBI agents were tipped off to the group’s alleged plot, which had not drawn any member to the nation’s capital, on the night of June 10, when Proper’s mother, whose identity was not disclosed, reported to the Danville Police Department in Ohio that the young man had purchased about $3,000 in firearms, camping gear and other equipment and wouldn’t tell her why. However, she suspected his recent chats with “individuals online” was behind the activity, according to the FBI.
Proper was taken by Knox County sheriff’s deputies to a behavioral health center for treatment of “homicidal ideations,” the complaint said. Afterward, local law enforcement contacted the FBI, culminating in seizure of the defendant’s social media records and discovery of the alleged plot and the other four men.
All of the defendants were taken into custody without incident at their respective residences at the end of last week.
Thomas and Roa made a joint initial court appearance Monday at U.S. District Court in Riverside. Roa is now due for arraignment on July 7, and Thomas on July 21. They’re being held at a federal detention facility.
Background details on them were unavailable.