Arizona teen arrested on terrorism charges in alleged plot against Phoenix Pride Festival

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A grand jury in Arizona has indicted a teenager who they believe planned a terror attack on the Phoenix Pride parade earlier this month.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said 17-year-old Marvin Aneer Jalo has been arrested on charges of terrorism and will be charged as an adult.

The indictment alleges that Jalo “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.”

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The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said 17-year-old Marvin Aneer Jalo has been arrested on charges of terrorism and will be charged as an adult. (Maricopa County Sheriffs Office)

“The defendant is currently being held on a $1 million cash-only bond,” a portion of the attorney’s office statement read.

Authorities say Jalo planned to carry out an attack on the Phoenix Pride Festival.

“The investigation found that between November 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024, Marvin Jalo 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 (triacetone triperoxide), an unstable explosive that can propel shrapnel and other dangerous items outward, causing serious injury or death to people in the area,” part of the MCAO’s statement read.

Prosecutors added that Jalo “posted various videos of himself making the TATP” after he received the ingredients for the explosives in late November 2023, all while “continuing to reference a desire to use those explosives.” 

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Jalo reportedly planned on using a drone to deliver his explosives to the Phoenix Pride parade. (Jens Büttner/picture alliance via Getty Images)

They further said that on Telegram, Jalo had “conversations about making a RC-controlled bomb and attacking various targets, including in New York City.”

Court documents also revealed that Jalo was arrested at his Buckeye home for an “unrelated incident involving criminal damage and disorderly conduct-[domestic violence],” according to Fox 10 Phoenix.

Documents further revealed that Jalo’s mother told police that she’d suspected her son was corroborating “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.”

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Jalo was arrested on a terrorism charge and will be tried as an adult, per a Maricopa County grand jury. (iStock)

“Jalo 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,” documents read.

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Prosecutors said Jalo intended to use a “bomb drone” to transport his explosives.

Organizers of the Phoenix Pride Festival say it’s “an annual celebratory and educational event commemorating the ‘Stonewall Riots,’ acknowledged as the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.”