This is what the Feds are trying to stop. This is the second incident of people using gun shows to illegally supply firearms for criminal purposes in the past two months.
LOCAL
Arizona man facing federal charges for planning mass shooting in Atlanta, wanted to start ‘race war’
By WSBTV.com News Staff
June 12, 2024 at 8:21 am EDT
ATLANTA — An Arizona man was arrested in May for planning a mass shooting in Atlanta targeting African Americans in the city to incite a race war.
Mark Adams Prieto is accused of selling rifles to people to provide weapons to begin a race war ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
He was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury, following a months-long investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and his arrest in mid-May.
An affidavit submitted in court by members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Phoenix, Ariz. detailed how the investigation into Prieto began in October 2023.
According to the affidavit, a reliable source reported that a man later identified as Prieto “expressed a desire to incite a race war prior to the 2024 United States Presidential Election.”
The affidavit says the source told FBI agents that they’d spoken to Prieto at various gun shows over three years, eventually including political conversation.
During the past year, Prieto’s comments became “suspicious and alarming,” according to the affidavit, “including advocating for a mass shooting, and specifically targeting ‘******racial and religious minoritiez).’”
The source told FBI agents that “Prieto believes that martial law will be implemented shortly after the 2024 election and that a mass shooting should occur prior to the implementation of martial law,” and asked the source in late 2023 if they were “ready to kill a bunch of people.”
The FBI said in the affidavit that this showed Prieto’s desire to recruit people to help him carry out an attack.
The investigation by federal agents found that Prieto worked as a gun show vendor in Prescott, Ariz., where he sold numerous firearms from his personal collection. The source told the FBI that Prieto also likes to conduct trades “off book” through cash or trade to “avoid possible issues or interactions with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.”
