Arizona man accused of trafficking weapons to kill black people and start race war

By Jonathan Allen

(Reuters) – An Arizona man was charged with four counts of gun trafficking after federal prosecutors said a sting operation revealed he planned to kill black people during a mass shooting to “incite a race war,” according to the indictment. .

A grand jury on Tuesday indicted Mark Adams Prieto, 58, on charges of firearm trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered weapon.

Prieto was driving east on a New Mexico highway when he was stopped and arrested May 14 with seven firearms in his vehicle, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona.

He previously told an undercover FBI agent posing as a racist gun enthusiast that he planned to travel to Atlanta, Georgia, for reconnaissance of possible attack locations, which he wanted carry out before the US presidential election in November, according to the indictment. .

Between January and May, Prieto met several times with the undercover agent and a source secretly assisting the FBI at various gun shows in Arizona. Before January, he spoke with the FBI source about “conducting a mass shooting targeting African-Americans, Jews and Muslims,” ​​the indictment says.

Prieto remains in custody and could not be reached for comment, while an attorney representing him did not immediately respond to questions.

The undercover agent, the source and Prieto chose concerts planned in Atlanta on May 14 and 15 as targets for the mass shooting because Prieto expected the concerts to be attended by large numbers of African Americans, says the indictment. The indictment did not identify specific events or locations.

In March, Prieto sold the undercover agent an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to use in the attack at a gun show in Phoenix.

A few weeks later, at another gun show in Phoenix, Prieto told the agent that he wanted to push the attack to a later date and was considering changing the target to a mosque, but that he planned to travel east in May for reconnaissance, the indictment states.

He was driving alone when he was stopped, and although he had seven firearms in the vehicle, he only had ammunition for one, the handgun, the indictment states. Additional weapons and ammunition were found during a search of Prieto's home in Prescott, Arizona, including a rifle that was not registered to him, the indictment states.

He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; editing by Rod Nickel)