by Matthew Holloway | Feb 10, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Marvin Aneer Jalo, a Buckeye 17-year-old charged in an attempted terrorist attack on the 2024 Phoenix Pride Parade will be tried as an adult after a ruling from Judge Joseph Kiefer on Friday. Kiefer denied efforts by the suspect’s attorneys to remove the case to juvenile court stressing the seriousness of the charges against him.
Jalo was arrested in October and charged with one count of terrorism and one count of conspiracy to commit terrorism in connection with an alleged conspiracy hatched on messaging platforms Discord and Telegram to attack the event using a “bomb drone,” equipped with TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) and C4 explosives.
Judge Kiefer denied the motion by Jalo, as reported by AZ Family, stating “The seriousness of the offenses does not support that public safety is best served by defendant’s case proceeding in juvenile court.” He added that the suspect demonstrated “a very concerning level of participation and planning toward possible attacks in multiple U.S. cities.”
In the indictment against Jalo obtained by Fox News, a Grand Jury alleged that the teenager “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.”
A statement from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office revealed that investigators found Jalo had “participated in online chat rooms discussing the supplies necessary to make an improvised explosive device and then had those supplies shipped to him. He discussed his intent to make TATP (tri-acetone triperoxide), an unstable explosive that can propel shrapnel and other dangerous items outward, causing serious injury or death to people in the area,” and furthermore “posted various videos of himself making the TATP” while “continuing to reference a desire to use those explosives.”
Jalo was arrested at his home in Buckeye with his mother telling authorities that the two had argued after she discovered her son “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,” per court documents.
The suspect later spoke with police and “confirmed he had been speaking with extremists, who were actively recruiting him. [Jalo] told police that he needed to gather more knowledge and better prepare himself before taking part in a terrorist event.”
Judge Keifer said in his ruling that the messages exchanged between Jalo and his co-conspirators weren’t merely “Should we engage in this conduct” or “What would it be like to engage in this conduct,” but rather centered on “how the group would actually prepare for and accomplish these attacks.” The Judge added that although Jalo could have been “posturing” or “embellishing,” the role he took in the chats was “significant.”
Jalo’s next hearing is scheduled for February. He was held on a $1 million cash-only bond as of October. However, due to his age it is unknown if he is still in custody or has been released on bond.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Daniel Stefanski | Jun 22, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
A Republican member of the Arizona Legislature is sounding the alarm after the release of a shocking revelation tied to the southern border.
Earlier this month, national media reported that eight suspected terrorists were arrested in major U.S. cities. The aliens, who were Tajikistan nationals, were apprehended in New York City, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia by ICE and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Bill Melugin, a Fox News journalist, shared that he was “told all 8 crossed the southern border illegally, received ‘full vetting’, and had no initial derogatory information that flagged.” He noted that “derogatory info/potential national security concerns flagged later on – apparently after release into the U.S.”
Arizona State Senator Frank Carroll reacted to the stunning news, writing, “A recent Fox News report revealed eight Tajikistan nationals with ties to ISIS were caught by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in conjunction with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in three major cities across America. These terrorists crossed the border illegally and were processed then released into our country without being flagged. Luckily, we were able to catch them later on, but eventually, our luck WILL run out! Clearly, our vetting process is not very efficient, and that’s for the people who we actually processed! This doesn’t include the millions of gotaways who’ve entered our country illegally and were never caught. How many more terrorists will we allow in before we wake up to the reality of what’s really going on?
Carroll added, “Thankfully, Republicans get it. That’s why we’re sending the Secure the Border Act to the November ballot. It will help prevent these violent terrorists and criminals from entering our country. The threat to our safety as Arizonans and Americans is at an all-time high!”
The FBI and DHS issued a joint statement to Fox News about the news, stating, “Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities. The actions were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment. The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security.”
Melugin later called attention to an earlier interview with an illegal alien from Turkey, who told the media how American citizens should be “worried” about the state of their border security and the individuals who are making their way into the homeland from all parts of the world.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 17, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, a Republican hopeful for U.S. Senate, issued a press release on Wednesday extolling the virtues of the law enforcement agencies responsible for the capture of eight terrorists tied to ISIS who had illegally entered the country and excoriating the Biden White House for its maladministration of the dangerous situation at the Southern Border.
In his release, Lamb’s office explained that the Sheriff offered his congratulations to “law enforcement at every level in the tracking and arrest of eight terrorists with ties to ISIS who had managed to cross the southern border in recent months.” As reported by The New York Post six of the ISIS-linked terrorists were Russian nationals from Tajikistan, and were arrested during coordinated raids in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. Per NBC two additional terrorists with links to ISIS were also arrested after they were surveilled for “several months” by the Joint Terrorism Taskforce.
Lamb said in a statement, “One week after Joe Biden’s executive order was issued to ‘close the border’, I can report that the situation on the ground is just as chaotic and dangerous as ever.”
He warned, “the arrests of the terrorists in our major cities is just the tip of the iceberg. Those Russian nationals were identified and tracked. There are countless military-aged men who have already made their way across the border illegally and continue to do so. We have little or no idea where they reside and what they are planning.”
According to the Post, FBI Director Christopher Wray issued warnings to Congress regarding a potential plot on U.S. soil at the hands of ISIS-K or Islamic State Khorasan, the same group that successfully attacked a concert hall in Moscow with Tajikistani nationals killing 145 people and wounding hundreds.
“Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” Wray told the House Appropriations subcommittee in April. “But now, increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall a couple weeks ago.”
Lamb noted that his Deputies recently made a significant drug bust working in coordination with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol saying, “My deputies just took 80 pounds – 360,000 pills – of fentanyl and 9 nine pounds of cocaine off the street. Can you imagine the millions of people who would likely die if that fentanyl had made it in hands of Americans.” He added, “The border shouldn’t be a photo-op for politicians. Every state is now a border state, every county is a border county. Every school and neighborhood is a fentanyl war zone. We can close the border if the politicians in Washington wanted. The political establishment has shown they don’t have the willpower or experience on the ground to make it happen.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
