A Chicago man has been charged with obstructing an FBI investigation into an alleged plot to attack the high-profile Ultimate Fighting Championship event hosted by President Donald Trump outside the White House earlier this month with drones and high-powered weapons.
Alexander Iniguez Mercado, 20, was charged in an indictment made public Friday with one count of obstruction of justice, which carries up to 20 years in prison. He is the first Chicago-area person arrested in a sprawling investigation that has stretched from Washington to Ohio, Arkansas and California, where most defendants face far more serious counts of conspiracy and attempted murder.
The three-page indictment alleged Mercado was an administrator of messaging groups on the encrypted app Signal that included members who were apparently communicating about a violent attack planned for June 14, when Trump hosted the UFC event on the South Lawn.
According to charges filed in the case, the group began planning violence in March and eventually coalesced around a scheme to fly explosive-laden drones over the arena and deploy snipers to shoot “high-value” targets as they fled.
Seven other individuals from multiple states have been charged in connection with planning the violent attack.
The day before the event, an FBI special agent spoke with Mercado by telephone about the investigation and asked whether Mercado planned to travel to Washington to help with the attack, the indictment alleged.
“(Mercado) denied those plans, advised the agent that he did not want to meet with the agent, and, after a brief conversation, the call was disconnected,” the indictment stated.
The next day, Mercado uninstalled the Signal application from his phone, making the data related to those messages unavailable, according to the indictment.
Mercado was arrested on Thursday. At a hearing Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes, Mercado held back tears as he pleaded not guilty. He wore his long, black hair tied up in a ponytail and bounced in his seat for much of the 40-minute hearing, listening intently to Fuentes.
Prosecutors are asking that Mercado be held without bond, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly Moheb arguing he posed “a serious risk of obstruction of justice and a serious risk of flight.”
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Moheb alleged that Mercado was recruiting people to join the group, which she did not name but said operated on multiple online platforms. After being contacted by the FBI, Mercado allegedly told another member of the group that he had spoken to government agents, Moheb said.
In addition to facing serious prison time, Mercado “does not have a very stable living situation,” Moheb said, noting that after his arrest, he was unable to recall the street number of his home. She also said Mercado had been arrested last fall for allegedly hitting his mother, with whom he would be living upon release.
Mercado’s lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Johanathan Brooks, said Mercado had moved to his current address two weeks earlier and that the domestic battery charge against him had been dropped shortly after his arrest. He also disputed Moheb’s characterization of the group’s purpose.
“This is not a group about terror,” he said. Rather, Mercado “made an offhand remark in a group about survivalism.”
When contacted by the FBI, Brooks continued, Mercado “basically freaked and deleted the Signal app.”
Pretrial services administrators recommended Mercado be released with some restrictions while awaiting trial, but Fuentes granted Moheb’s request for a full detention hearing, which will be held on Tuesday.
Mercado will remain in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center until then. As Fuentes adjourned the hearing, Mercado was audibly sobbing as he left the courtroom.
In a statement on Friday, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros called allegedly obstructing an investigation into a plot that threatened not only the president but also thousands of spectators and athletes a “profoundly serious offense.”
Chicago FBI Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta said federal law enforcement is working around the clock to evaluate an “ever-changing threat landscape.”
“Thanks to the partnerships on the FBI Chicago’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, to include the relentless work by the U.S. Secret Service, this attack was successfully foiled before any innocent people were gravely injured or killed,” DePodesta said in a written statement.
FBI Director Kash Patel has said authorities became aware of the plot on June 10, just four days before the event.
According to criminal charges filed in the investigation, the group’s members started planning violence in March and moved their communications to an encrypted chat where they traded ideas and photos over several months.
A criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Ohio alleged the group coalesced around a plan to fly small drones with explosives to detonate over the UFC arena and put snipers in place to shoot “high-value” targets as they fled.
One of the defendants, Tycen Proper, allegedly amassed firearms, ammunition and tactical gear at his home in Ohio and identified potential targets, “including multiple members of Congress,” according to the Department of Justice.
Another suspect charged in California, Bryan Roa, had a group chat on his cellphone in a group chat with Proper and others discussing the details of the attack, prosecutors have alleged.
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A third defendant, Michael Thomas, used an alias as he allegedly described in a group chat meeting with Roa in person in California in order to conduct “marksmen training” and reflected that the group needed to train for “gorilla style warfare,” prosecutors have alleged.
“Pensilvania avenue,” Thomas texted, misspelling Pennsylvania, days before the UFC event, according to prosecutors.