Satanic ritual and homophobia: the scary details of the terrorist attack foiled at Lady Gaga’s concert

Rio de Janeiro police have arrested two people suspected of planning a forward at Lady Gaga’s free mega-concert on Copacabana beach.

BREAKING: Brazilian police say they thwarted a bomb attack planned for Lady Gaga’s historic concert that drew an estimated 2 million people to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday: cnn.it/3SkMpE0

— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-05-04T15:18:03.606Z

A third person, allegedly planning to carry out a “satanic ritual” during the singer’s concert, has also been arrested as part of the investigation to identify other accomplices involved in the attack.

While Gaga was performing for free in front of nearly 2.1 million people, neither she nor her team knew that the event was being targeted by two individuals posing online as fans.

They were trying to recruit others to carry out a forward attack targeting the LGBTQ+ community with improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails.

Police kept information about their investigation, dubbed “Operation Fake Monster”, secret until the arrests were made, to avoid mass panic or distortion of the facts that could have compromised the investigation.

According to CNN, the suspects belonged to an online hate group that sought to radicalize young people by disseminating content linked to hate crimes, self-harm, violence and pedophilia.

Brazilian police also claim to have foiled several planned crimes on the dark web in the weeks leading up to the Gaga concert, with no direct link to the event, but suggesting that the group targeting the concert was also active on these underground networks.

As part of the investigation into the planned forward, police arrested an individual, who was being prosecuted on terrorism charges.

According to the authorities, he was planning to commit a “satanic ritual involving the murder of a child or infant” during Lady Gaga’s concert.

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