GET TO THE RIFLES The North Texas Antifa Cell Attack on Prairieland Detention Center July 4, 2025 — Alvarado, Texas

The Second Superseding Federal Indictment defines it plainly. "Antifa is a militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology, which explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law."

The indictment continues: Antifa adherents have increasingly targeted agents and facilities related to DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement in opposition to I.C.E.'s deportation actions and the U.S. government's policy on the removal of illegal aliens. "The Antifa campaign involves coordinated efforts to obstruct enforcement of Federal law through organized riots, violent assaults, and armed confrontations with I.C.E. and law enforcement officers."

Most of the Antifa Cell looked to Benjamin Hanil Song as its leader. Song and others recruited for the cell from various ideologically aligned groups. He recruited at gun ranges. He recruited at close-quarters combat training sessions — sessions he personally conducted. Together, members of the Antifa Cell acquired over 50 firearms in Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Dallas, and elsewhere. Song bought and built numerous AR-platform rifles, some of which he distributed to co-defendants.

To hide their involvement in illegal conduct, the Antifa Cell emphasized and practiced "operational security" — "opsec" — in their communications. They used encrypted messaging apps with auto-delete and delete-after-a-defined-time functions. Most members used monikers in chat groups to hide their true identities. Planning chats were restricted to trusted participants on a need-to-know basis.

The cell drew from multiple interconnected radical networks. Defendants Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto, and Savanna Batten were part of a separate group that created and distributed insurrectionary materials called "zines." Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada's seized box contained a handwritten training, tactics, and planning document for civil unrest — along with "War in the Streets," "It's Vacant, Take It!," and "Organising for Attack! Insurrectionary Anarchy." This was not an impulsive crowd. This was a network with doctrine.

In the days prior to July 4, the Antifa Cell planned and coordinated the riot and attack against Prairieland using several group chats on an encrypted messaging app. One chat — which they named the "4th of July Party!" — consisted of the core group that planned the action. The Core Chat originally had eight participants. Two dropped out for "opsec reasons" after they stated they would not attend. The six remaining members were Evetts, Song, Morris, Gibson, Rueda, and Sikes.

Members of the Core Chat conducted detailed reconnaissance and planning. Evetts and Rueda attended a peaceful protest at Prairieland earlier in the day on July 4 — in order to scout the facility. Evetts relayed to the Core Chat the details about the fences and gates, including the exact time it took for the gates to open and close and how long trash pickup took to get in and out. Rueda circulated a photograph of a security camera at the entrance and noted that a nearby house had a doorbell camera. Rueda also posted a Google map showing the location of local police departments in relation to Prairieland.

Evetts assessed in the Core Chat: "signs, laws, and social pressure are the only things keeping someone from getting right up to the fence."

The members planned what materials to bring, including firearms, medical kits, and fireworks. Evetts asked the Core Chat group if they would be "doing black bloc and rifles?" Gibson stated they would be wearing bloc and keeping "kit" on hand, "bringing a wagon to hold armor and rifles." When Rueda suggested that "rifles might make the situation more hot," Song replied that rifles would be used to intimidate law enforcement: "Cops are not trained or equipped for more than one rifle so it tends to make them back off."

Song also advertised the July 4 riot on a larger encrypted chat — the "Large Chat" — but deliberately left out certain details to avoid being identified as one of the organizers. As Rueda warned in the Core Chat: "if anyone pins us for 'organizing' that's where we'd lose." Song circulated a flyer stating: "Share with trusted folks only. Do not Post. Mask up! Be loud!"

On the evening of July 3 — the night before the attack — Song, Arnold, Morris, and others met in person at Morris and Arnold's shared residence in Dallas for a "gear check." There, Arnold asked Song directly whether they would be bringing guns to the July 4 action. Song replied that they would — because he was not going to jail. He repeated this statement multiple times throughout the evening, putting everyone present on explicit notice of his intent to shoot at police rather than be arrested.

On the evening of July 4 itself, Song, Arnold, Evetts, Gibson, Morris, and Rueda staged at Morris and Arnold's house before carpooling to Prairieland. Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto, and Batten drove together and arrived a little later. Baumann drove by himself from College Station. The Antifa Cell brought a total of eleven firearms to Prairieland — four of which had been purchased by Song.

Benjamin Hanil Song was a resident of Dallas, Texas. According to military records, he served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves from approximately 2011 through 2016 — receiving an Other Than Honorable discharge. He carried that military training into his role as the operational leader of the North Texas Antifa Cell.

Song bought and built numerous AR-platform rifles — some of which he distributed to his co-defendants. He personally purchased four of the eleven firearms brought to Prairieland that night. He trained cell members at gun ranges and led close-quarters combat training sessions. The ATF traced all four weapons back to him. Most significantly, Song modified his Franklin Arms FAI-15 with a binary trigger — a device that causes two bullets to fire per trigger cycle, doubling the rate of fire — typically installed after purchase from a licensed dealer.

A cooperating defendant confirmed what ATF traces could only suggest: Song traveled to Prairieland with Morris on the night of the attack. During the ambush, that same cooperating defendant recognized the sound of the gunfire as coming from a rifle with a binary trigger — consistent with the FAI-15 Song had purchased and modified.

After the attack, Song's rifle jammed from the volume of fire. He abandoned it on Tanglewood Drive and fled into the woods. His cell phone data confirmed he remained within several hundred meters of the Prairieland Detention Center through all of July 5 — hiding in the trees — before fleeing under cover of darkness. He was captured on July 15, 2025, eleven days after the attack. ICE issued a formal CAPTURED poster.

The attack didn't end when Song's rifle jammed. A separate network immediately activated to conceal evidence, shelter the shooter, and destroy anything that could connect them to the crime.

Lynette Read Sharp — Signal moniker "Candied Dynamite" — had been in the pre-attack planning chat on July 3–4. She couldn't attend the Prairieland operation due to "family problems" but offered to monitor the chat and send money in support of the operation. On July 7, after the attack, Sharp used Signal to arrange transferring Song from one safe house to another.

John Phillip Thomas — Signal group administrator who went by "Roy, come and get this cat" — had known Song since approximately 2022 and lived with him from September 2024 to late June 2025. On the night of July 5, Thomas drove to the area surrounding Prairieland, met three individuals at a Days Inn Hotel in Cleburne, Texas, and admitted they discussed the shooting and getting Song out of the woods. He then drove to the area, picked Song up, and transported him to a Churchill Way residence in Dallas. Thomas later bought Song new clothing at Walmart — a receipt dated July 6 for clothing in Song's sizes was recovered from Thomas's vehicle.

Maricela Rueda called fellow defendant Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada from Johnson County Jail on July 6, instructing him to tow her car and move items from her Fort Worth residence. Sanchez drove materials from his Garland, Texas residence to a Denton apartment. FBI followed him, executed a search warrant, and seized a box containing Antifa materials — including insurrection planning documents, anti-law enforcement propaganda, and anti-immigration enforcement materials — all connected to Rueda. The grand jury charged both Sanchez and Rueda with Conspiracy to Conceal Documents (18 U.S.C. § 1512(k)).

The Material Support to Terrorists charge (Count 2) is significant. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2339A, the government must prove the defendants provided property, services, training, communications equipment, weapons, explosives, personnel — including themselves — and transportation, knowing and intending those resources were to be used in preparation for and carrying out violations of federal law, including the attempted murders charged in Counts 5 through 7. This is the same statute used against international terrorism supporters. The grand jury applied it here to a domestic cell on American soil.

Upon conviction on the terrorism charge, all defendants are subject to forfeiture of all property connected to Federal crimes of terrorism — including assets acquired or maintained for the purpose of supporting, planning, conducting, or concealing any Federal crime of terrorism.