Two people have been arrested in relation to an alleged plot to set off a bomb at a free Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian police said on May 4.
Saturday’s show in Rio was the pop star’s biggest event of her career, with an estimated 2.5 million fans crowding Copacabana Beach to watch her perform.
According to Rio de Janeiro’s state police and Brazil’s Justice Ministry, the plot was allegedly carried out by a group that targets certain groups of people and it involved plans to detonate homemade bombs at the concert.
“The plan was treated as a ‘collective challenge’ with the aim of gaining notoriety on social media,” the police said.
The group distributed violent content online to teenagers as “a form of belonging,” police added.
The two people authorities arrested in connection with the alleged plot were a man referred to as the group’s leader in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, who was charged with illegal weapons possession, and a Rio teenager facing child pornography charges.
Police did not explain the two suspects’ exact roles in the alleged plot or how the group eventually targeted Gaga’s Rio concert.
“Those involved were recruiting participants, including teenagers, to carry out integrated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,” police said.
The group was a “risk to public order,” according to Brazil’s Justice Ministry, which said the group had deceptively referred to themselves online as “Little Monsters,” a name Gaga uses for her fans.
That deception was intended to reach teens and pull them into “networks with violent and self-destructive content,” the ministry added.
Authorities confiscated phones and other electronic devices during a series of raids on the residences of 15 suspects throughout multiple Brazilian states. Police did not mention finding any weapons or explosive material during the raids.
The raids were conducted discreetly on Saturday in the hours prior to the concert while “avoiding panic or distortion of information among the population,” police said.
The Justice Ministry said the alleged plot and the actions carried out to stop it had no impact on those attending the free concert.
“Nothing could prepare me for the feeling I had during last night’s show—the absolute pride and joy I felt singing for the people of Brazil. The sight of the crowd during my opening songs took my breath away,” the pop star wrote.
Rio’s City Hall said in a recent report that Gaga’s concert should inject at least 600 million reais, roughly $106 million, into the city’s economy.
The city saw more than 500,000 tourists pour into its streets in the days before the show, more than double the initial projections, according to local bus station data and Tom Jobim airport, the city hall said in a Friday statement.
