Brazilian authorities have successfully thwarted a planned bombing attack on Lady Gaga’s free concert at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on May 3. The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro and the Justice Ministry teamed up to uncover the planned attack, which was aimed at children, adolescents, and the LGBTQI+ community. The group behind the attack intended to spread hate speech and gain social media notoriety by radicalizing teenagers through the promotion of self-harm, pedophilia, and violent content online.
The suspects had recruited individuals to execute the attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails. Two individuals, including the mastermind of the plan, have been apprehended. The mastermind was taken into custody for illegally possessing a fire in Rio Grande do Sul, while the other was detained for storing child pornography in Rio. The police operation, dubbed ‘Operation Fake Monster’, was initiated following a tip-off from intelligence services, leading to the execution of 15 search warrants across multiple Brazilian cities.
Lady Gaga’s concert drew a record-breaking crowd of approximately two million attendees, surpassing the previous record set by Madonna the year before. The event was organized to boost the local economy and is believed to have generated nearly £80 million for Rio, attracting over 500,000 tourists to the city. Despite the alleged threat, there were no safety concerns reported prior to or during the show, with no formal communication from law enforcement to Lady Gaga regarding potential risks. Felipe Cury, the secretary of the Rio police, disclosed that the suspects explicitly linked their planned attack to Lady Gaga’s concert based on sexual orientation factors
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