‘Operation Fake Monster’: Brazilian police stop bomb plot at Lady Gaga’s Rio concert

Brazilian police arrested two individuals over an alleged plot to bomb Lady Gaga’s concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
The deliberate assault was foiled throughout a joint operation between Rio de Janeiro’s civil police and the justice ministry, officers stated on Sunday.
Authorities imagine the group behind the plot had been spreading hate speech towards the LGBTQ group and was making an attempt to radicalise youngsters on-line to hold out assaults with Molotov cocktails and home made explosives.
“The plan was treated as a ‘collective challenge’ with the aim of gaining notoriety on social media,” police stated, including that the operation was stored quiet to keep away from panic or misinformation.
The operation, codenamed “Fake Monster” — a play on Lady Gaga’s fanbase referred to as “Little Monsters” — led to the arrest of an grownup within the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul on unlawful weapons prices. An adolescent in Rio was additionally detained on prices of possessing little one pornography.
Police carried out raids within the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and Mato Grosso, looking the houses of 15 suspects. Phones and digital units had been seized through the coordinated crackdown.
The justice ministry stated members of the group had pretended on-line to be followers of Lady Gaga with a view to lure youngsters into “networks with violent and self-destructive content material.
Despite the foiled assault, the concert went forward with out disruption. Security was tight, with round 5,000 officers, facial recognition cameras, drones, and surveillance techniques deployed at the venue.