By Olivier Acuña Barba •
Printed: 04 Might 2025 • 21:11
• 2 minutes learn
Woman Gaga carried out earlier than the biggest crowd ever in her profession | Photograph: Web
The implications would have been tragic if the Brazil Police had not thwarted a bomb assault a radical group had deliberate throughout Woman Gaga’s live performance that drew a record-breaking crowd of over 2.1 million.
The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro state and the Justice Ministry collectively carried out an operation after being tipped off concerning the plot, which they stated was masterminded by a gaggle selling hate speech and the radicalisation of youngsters, together with self-harm and violent content material as a type of social belonging.
“The suspects have been recruiting individuals, together with minors, to hold out coordinated assaults utilizing improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,” the police stated in a press release. Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio police, stated authorities believed the suspects sought to focus on Brazil’s LGBTQ group. Chatting with the reporters, Curry added, “They have been clearly saying that they have been planning an assault at Lady Gaga’s concert motivated by sexual orientation,” Cury instructed a press convention on Sunday.”
Rio Police Chief Luiz Lima stated the group disseminated hate speech and violent content material on-line “aimed toward gaining notoriety to draw extra viewers, extra individuals, most of them youngsters.”
A Woman Gaga spokesperson stated she and her staff “came upon about this alleged risk by way of media reviews this morning. Earlier than and throughout the present, there have been no identified security issues, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Woman Gaga concerning any potential dangers.”
Police raid houses throughout Brazil
Authorities arrested two folks concerned within the alleged bomb assault plan. One among them was described because the group’s chief within the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. He was charged with unlawful weapons possession. The second suspect, a young person from Rio, was accused of pornography.
“These concerned have been recruiting individuals, together with youngsters, to hold out built-in assaults utilizing improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,” police stated.
The Justice Ministry decided the group posed a “danger to public order.” It stated the group falsely offered themselves on-line as “Little Monsters” — Lady Gaga’s nickname for her followers — to lure youngsters into “networks with violent and self-destructive content material.”
Police raided the houses of 15 different suspects throughout a number of Brazilian states. In the course of the searches, police seized telephones and different digital units.
Though police stated they believed selfmade bombs have been supposed to be used within the deliberate assault, there was no point out of the raids turning up any weapons or explosive materials.