The alleged “ringleader” of the explosive drone attack plot against the UFC event at the White House is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was granted Dreamer status by the Obama administration and allowed to stay in the country, Homeland Security said Thursday.
Abraham Alvarez, 31, came to the US as a child and failed to leave the country when his B2 visa expired in 2001, but was granted deportation relief under the Obama administration through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
He was arrested in an old church in the small town of Western, Nebraska, on June 14, which he intended to use as a “safe zone” for himself and his alleged co-conspirators, according to a local report by First Alert 6.
“From his home here in Nebraska, Alvarez allegedly directed and recruited others across the country to conduct a horrific attack against government officials in a mass casualty event,” Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel of the FBI Omaha field office said in a Tuesday release from the US Attorney’s Office.
“Our team worked around the clock to locate and apprehend Alvarez, take him into custody, and collect crucial evidence.”
Alvarez was one of five alleged co-conspirators in the scheme to kill President Trump and other top government officials at the combat sports spectacle held late Sunday on the White House South Lawn attended by thousands of fight fans.