Brazilian Police foil bomb plot targeting Lady Gaga's concert in Rio

Brazilian authorities have successfully thwarted a planned bomb attack targeting pop superstar Lady Gaga’s historic concert at Copacabana Beach, which attracted an estimated 2.1 million attendees.

According to the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, the operation was conducted in collaboration with the Justice Ministry after intelligence indicated a coordinated plot by a radical group promoting hate speech and the online radicalization of teenagers through violent and self-harm content.

In a statement, police revealed that the suspects had been recruiting participants, including minors, to carry out simultaneous attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails during the high-profile event. Alarmingly, the group’s recruiters posed as members of Gaga's global fan community, known as the "Little Monsters," to mask their activities and lure vulnerable individuals.

The investigation was initiated after Rio state police intelligence tipped off the Justice Ministry’s Cyber Operations Lab, which detected digital cells encouraging extremist behavior among youth through coded language and symbolic references.

A key figure in the plot, identified as the group’s leader, was apprehended in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul for illegal possession of a firearm. Additionally, a teenager in Rio de Janeiro was detained for possession of child pornography as part of the broader crackdown.

Authorities executed over a dozen search and seizure warrants across multiple states, including Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul, and São Paulo, as part of the operation to dismantle the network.