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The obvious chief of a weird vegan transgender cult, the Zizians, has been linked to 6 killings throughout the nation, together with the homicide of a Border Patrol agent.
Jack “Ziz” Lasota, 34, was arrested Sunday together with Michelle Zajko, 33, and Daniel Clean, 26, Maryland State Police stated Monday. They face a number of expenses, together with trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and possession of a handgun in a car.
LaSota was ordered held with out bail on Tuesday at Allegany District Courtroom in Cumberland, with prosecutors citing considerations that he was a flight danger and a hazard to public security.
Prosecutors stated LaSota “seems to be the chief of an extremist group often known as ‘Zizians’ that has been linked to a number of killings.”
MANHUNT TIED TO ‘ANARCHIST’ VEGAN CULT IN BORDER PATROL AGENT KILLING: REPORT
Jack LaSota refused to talk and saved his eyes closed for his reserving photograph after being detained in a resort in suburban Pennsylvania on Jan. 23, 2023. (Delaware County, Pennsylvania, District Lawyer’s Workplace by way of AP/File)
The perimeter group was introduced into the limelight after followers have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland close to the Canadian border in January.
LaSota’s run-ins with regulation enforcement return to a minimum of 2022. Initially from Alaska, LaSota appeared to pen extremist ideologies in a since-archived weblog titled “Sinceriously.” LaSota additionally recognized as transgender and used feminine pronouns, the Related Press reported.
In a February 2019 submit titled “Punching Evil,” LaSota is believed to have written that there can be “no ethical obligation to not carry out self-defense” if “the state has been seized by vampires.”
In a Nov. 19 submit titled “Good Group and Pasek’s Doom,” LaSota wrote that every hemisphere can have separate values and even genders and that they “usually want to kill one another.”
“Reaching peace between hemispheres with conflicting pursuits is a difficult technique of repeatedly reconstructing frames of recreation concept and choice concept in gentle of realizations of them having been strategically broken by your headmate,” LaSota wrote.
LaSota additionally described being allegedly focused by police for carrying Sith-inspired garb. All through the weblog, LaSota frequently mentions enchantment with the Star Wars franchise.
“Generally cops harass me for carrying my spiritual apparel as a Sith,” LaSota wrote. “(As a Sith, I’m religiously required to do no matter I would like, and for now that so occurs to incorporate carrying black robes).”
In September 2022, a quick obituary was revealed in LaSota’s hometown paper, the Day by day Information-Miner, in Fairbanks, Alaska. (Legacy.com)
Staged demise
In September 2022, a temporary obituary was revealed in LaSota’s hometown paper, the Day by day Information-Miner, in Fairbanks, Alaska. The obituary stated LaSota was killed in a “boating accident” on Aug. 19, 2022.
“Loving journey, family and friends, music, blueberries, biking, laptop video games and animals, you might be missed,” the obituary reads.
VERMONT BORDER PATROL AGENT ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY GERMAN NATIONAL WORKED IN PENTAGON DURING 9/11: FAMILY
Nonetheless, LaSota’s demise was short-lived when the Sonoma County District Lawyer’s Workplace knowledgeable LaSota’s lawyer that LaSota had been discovered “alive and effectively” at a criminal offense scene on Nov. 13, 2022, based on the San Francisco Chronicle.
It was not instantly clear why LaSota faked his demise, main even his mother and father to consider he was useless. The thriller deepened after his title was linked to a legal investigation in California in 2022.
Felony investigation in Vallejo, California
LaSota’s demise was contradicted after his title popped up in a squatting incident in Vallejo, California.
The incident unraveled when LaSota and different associates moved to a property in Vallejo belonging to an older California man, then-80-year-old Curt Lind.
“They have been sad with dwelling on the tug,” Lind advised a documentary filmmaker, based on the San Francisco Chronicle. “They determined that they needed to maneuver to my yard and purchase shifting vans, small shifting vans, and alter them into locations the place they may stay within the shifting van and no person would know that they’re in there.”
Through the November 2022 incident, Curt Lind was attacked with a samurai sword by members of the Zizian cult. (GoFundMe)
Through the November 2022 incident, Lind was attacked with a samurai sword when the squatting dispute reached a boiling level.
“He had a samurai sword caught to his again with a few foot of it protruding in entrance, his face reduce up throughout,” Lind’s pal, Patrick McMillan, advised FOX 2 San Francisco on the time of the incident.
“The reality is, they jumped him,” his son, Carl Lind, advised the outlet.
Lind, regardless of the stabbing, nonetheless managed to shoot two of his alleged attackers, killing one in every of them, Emma Borhanian. Prosecutors concluded that the owner acted in self-defense.
In line with police studies, LaSota was handcuffed at gunpoint on the scene however was not charged.
Lind’s surviving the preliminary assault was short-lived, when, on Jan. 17, 2025, he was stabbed to demise.
Maximilian Snyder, 22, one other “Ziz” member, was arrested and charged together with his homicide, based on court docket information obtained by FOX 13 Seattle.
The outlet additionally reported that Snyder had utilized for a wedding license with Teresa Youngblut, who’s tied to the 2025 border agent killing.
Earlier mugshot of Michelle Zajko (FBI)
Michelle Zajko, 32, was additionally charged with resisting arrest and carrying a handgun. (Allegany County Sheriff’s Workplace)
Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, arrest
Richard and Rita Zajko have been discovered useless from murder from gunshot wounds of their Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, dwelling on New Yr’s Eve.
Police launched an investigation into the homicide and commenced taking a look at their daughter, Jamie Zajko, one other follower of LaSota.
GERMAN NATIONAL SUSPECT IDENTIFIED IN DEADLY SHOOTING OF US BORDER PATROL AGENT IN VERMONT
Daniel Clean was allegedly concerned in Richard and Rita Zajko’s 2023 homicide. Clean and LaSota have been charged with “obstructing administration of regulation” and “disorderly conduct.” (Allegany County Sheriff’s Workplace)
LaSota was introduced into the battle throughout a police investigation into the Zajko murders.
Daniel Clean, additionally a “Zizian,” and LaSota have been discovered at a Pennsylvania resort on Jan. 13, 2023. They have been each arrested for “obstructing administration of regulation” and “disorderly conduct.”
LaSota was freed on bail in June 2023 and reportedly quickly stopped displaying up for court docket dates. LaSota was thought-about at giant with an arrest warrant in Pennsylvania, the place the case continues to be pending.
Vermont investigation
The Maryland State Police confirmed to Fox Information Digital that LaSota, Zajko and one other individual have been arrested Sunday afternoon on a lot of expenses unrelated to the homicide of Maland in Vermont, close to the border with Canada.
TRANSGENDER VEGAN ‘CULT’ MEMBERS ARRESTED
Police stated that shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 16, LaSota was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and having a firearm in a car in Frostburg, Maryland. Zajko was arrested on the identical expenses in addition to resisting arrest and having a handgun.
Zajko allegedly purchased .40-caliber and .380-caliber handguns in February 2024 in Mount Tabor, Vermont, that have been utilized in Maland’s capturing, the Albany Occasions Union beforehand reported, citing court docket paperwork.
David Maland, a Minnesota native and Air Pressure veteran, labored as a Border Patrol agent on the U.S. Customs and Border Safety’s Newport Station. He spent 9 years within the army and 15 working for the federal authorities. (U.S. Border Patrol)
Maland, a Minnesota native and Air Pressure veteran, labored as a Border Patrol agent on the U.S. Customs and Border Safety’s Newport Station. He spent 9 years within the army and 15 working for the federal authorities.
It’s unclear what introduced members of the group to Vermont.
German nationwide Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt and Youngblut exchanged gunfire with Maland close to the Canada-Vermont border on Jan. 20 throughout a site visitors cease. Bauckholt and Maland have been killed. Youngblut was injured and faces legal expenses.
Teresa Youngblut, who’s charged by the FBI in connection to the capturing demise of Border Patrol Agent David Maland, is seen on the Newport Metropolis Inn on Jan. 14, 2025, in Newport, Vt. (Newport Metropolis Inn {photograph} by way of AP)
What the Zizians consider
The “Zizians” have been created by LaSota, who goes by the nickname “Ziz.”
The group displays cult conduct, based on Dar Dixon, an actor and the podcast host of “The Artwork of Being Dar,” who shared his cult experience with Fox Information Digital.
“The factor that I observed about this ‘Zizian’ cult is that it hits all the main factors that may set someone as much as be concerned in it. You’ve got acquired transgender human beings, all proper? You are coping with sexuality. You are coping with sexual identification, and also you’re coping with intercourse. Anytime you do all these issues, you have already acquired somebody, as they are saying, by the tight and curlies,” he stated.
“The second factor is that they have been on a restrictive food plan. On this case, they have been vegan,” he stated. “So whenever you begin to combine within the sexual facet, then with a restrictive food plan, now what you are doing is conduct management.”
WATCH: Cult skilled says ‘Zizian’ fringe group tied to killing of US border agent makes use of conduct management
Referencing cult skilled Steven Hassan’s BITE Mannequin of Authoritarian Management, Dixon mentioned how cults emotionally management their members.
“I am certain there was quite a lot of sleep deprivation happening additionally, which impacts your ideas, which impacts your feelings, which additionally impacts your conduct and your potential to soak up and course of info,” he stated.
“That is a part of the emotional management. You are by no means allowed to really feel your emotions or to debate your emotions. Should you do not step according to the social gathering line, you are instantly reprimanded, generally severely, both verbally or bodily, otherwise you’re shunned.”
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“So the end result of sexual identification, meals restriction, sleep restriction and emotional restriction, effectively, now I’ve acquired you,” he stated. “I personal you. And I can take you any route I wish to take you now.”
Fox Information Digital’s Stepheny Value contributed to this report.
Zizian Jack LaSota is transgender, vegan cult head tied to frame agent killing
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