Mark Prieto was recently arrested for plotting a mass shooting at a rap concert in Atlanta, Georgia. Investigators said he was planning to incite a race war ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election, which led to his indictment by a federal grand jury.
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In October 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigations started its investigation into Prieto after a close source reported his intentions to incite racial violence. According to WSB-TV, the affidavit from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force stated Prieto had been discussing his plan at various gun shows over three years, which quickly escalated to explicitly violent rhetoric over the past year. He allegedly expressed a desire to target African Americans, Jews, or Muslims to provoke martial law before the election.
Prieto confided to the source and undercover agents about his specific plan to carry out a mass shooting at a rap concert in Atlanta, citing the city’s demographic changes as his rationale. He believed that targeting a concert would bring in a high concentration of African Americans, and the plan also included leaving Confederate flags at the scene as a signal to call to arms for a race war.
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Undercover agents remained in contact with Prieto from January to March, leading to his arrest while traveling to Florida in mid-May. When approached by police on Interstate 40, he was found with multiple firearms. A search of his home in Prescott, Arizona, revealed more firearms, including an unregistered short-barreled rifle. Prieto was later indicted with firearms trafficking, transferring a firearm for use in a hate crime, and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Each count related to firearms trafficking and transferring firearms for a hate crime has a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, along with a $250,000 fine. The possession of an unregistered firearm could lead to 10 years in prison.
