An Arizona man has been charged with four counts of gun trafficking after federal prosecutors said an undercover sting operation revealed that he intended to kill Black people in a mass shooting to “incite a race war,” according to the indictment.
On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Mark Adams Prieto, 58, on charges of gun trafficking, transferring a weapon for purposes of a hate crime, and possessing an unregistered firearm. On May 14, Prieto was stopped and arrested while driving east on a New Mexico roadway with seven firearms in his vehicle, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Arizona district.
According to the indictment, he previously told an FBI undercover agent masquerading as a racist gun enthusiast that he intended to drive to Atlanta, Georgia, to conduct reconnaissance of potential assault sites before the November presidential election in the United States. Between January and May, Prieto met with the undercover agent and a source discreetly assisting the FBI at several gun shows in Arizona. Before January, he discussed “carrying out a mass shooting targeting African Americans, Jews, and Muslims,” according to the indictment.
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Prieto is still in detention and could not be reached for comment, and an attorney representing him did not immediately reply to questions. The undercover agent, the source, and Prieto chose Atlanta events scheduled for May 14 and 15 as their targets for the mass shooting because Prieto expected a high number of African Americans to attend, according to the indictment. The indictment did not mention any specific events or venues.
In March, Prieto sold the undercover agent an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle for use in the attack on a Phoenix gun expo. A few weeks later, at another gun show in Phoenix, Prieto informed the agent that he wanted to postpone the attack and was considering shifting the target to a mosque, but that he intended to drive east in May for reconnaissance, according to devdiscourse.com
He was driving alone when he was caught, and while he had seven guns in the vehicle, he only had ammunition for one of them, a pistol, according to the indictment. A search of Prieto’s residence in Prescott, Arizona, turned up other guns and ammo, including a rifle that was not registered in his name, according to the indictment. If convicted of the most serious charge, he may face up to 15 years in prison.