The US Justice Department has charged five men over an alleged plot to attack an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event held at the White House on President Donald Trump's birthday on Sunday.
The five suspects, aged between 19 and 32, are accused of conspiring to plan and execute a mass-casualty event targeting US government officials and others attending the event, the department said in a release on Tuesday.
The FBI said earlier it had prevented the alleged attack by making arrests.
Several people had been taken into custody, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X, adding that the alleged planned attacks had been "stopped cold."
The Justice Department said the arrests were made over the weekend in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska and California.
"The conspirators allegedly planned to deploy drones armed with explosives in and around the UFC Freedom 250 event in order to force an evacuation of the event and then planned to deploy snipers to fire upon 'high value targets' within the fleeing crowd," it said.
Patel said the FBI and law enforcement partners had become aware of a "potential threat" to the event on June 10.
Trump is known as a fan of the UFC, the biggest professional mixed martial arts (MMA) league. MMA is a combat sport that combines techniques from disciplines including boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, karate and jiu-jitsu. Unlike wrestling, the fights are not staged.
At Sunday's event, top UFC fighters competed in a specially built arena on the White House grounds. Guests included Trump and his family, several Cabinet members and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The official occasion was not Trump's birthday, but celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of US independence. The Independence Day holiday itself falls on July 4.
