Brazilian police announced on Sunday that they have apprehended two people in connection with a plot to carry out a bombing attack at the Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro. The free show put together by the international pop star was the biggest of her career, drawing an audience of over two million at Copacabana beach on Saturday night.
Rio’s Civil Police and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security collaborated on what they dubbed “Operation Fake Monster,” a reference to Gaga’s fans, whom she often refers to as “little monsters.” According to the Brazilian news outlet Globo, the group accused of planning the attack was radicalizing young people by spreading hate speech online, targeting children, adolescents, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Forums on which the content was shared also promoted self-mutilation, pedophilia, and violent behavior. It was from these networks that the plotters promoted the attack as a sort of social media challenge. “The suspects were recruiting participants, including minors, to carry out coordinated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,” the police said in a statement.
One man was arrested in Rio Grande do Sul for illegal possession of a firearm, while a teenager in Rio de Janeiro was taken in for possession of child pornography. In all, nine suspects were targeted for search and seizure across the country, from São Paulo near the Atlantic coast to Campo Novo de Parecis, roughly 1,200 miles westward. Authorities seized electronic devices and other materials from the targets’ addresses.
