BOOM! ‘Antifa cell’ operatives CONVICTED over violent attack on ICE facility

From Daily Mail: A group of ‘Antifa cell’ operatives have been convicted over an attack on a Texas ICE facility, which involved one member of the group shooting a police officer in the neck.

Song, identified as the group leader, was convicted of attempted murder for shooting Lieutenant Thomas Gross.

All defendants, except Sanchez-Estrada, were found guilty of terrorism-related charges.

Sanchez-Estrada and Rueda were convicted of conspiracy to conceal documents.

“These guilty verdicts and convictions rightly reflect the vicious, armed attack that these Antifa cell members planned and executed against law enforcement and detention center officers on the night of July 4 last year,” said North Texas attorney Ryan Raybould in a DOJ press release. “Their terrorist acts, attempted murder, vandalism and explosives launched at a detention center facility were a far cry from some peaceful protest or First Amendment expression.”

The release laid out the following details:

Testimony and other evidence at trial established that the defendants were members of a North Texas Antifa Cell, part of a larger militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to an ideology that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law. An expert testifying in the government’s case told the jury that Antifa’s coordinated efforts involve obstructing Federal law through organized riots, violent assaults, and armed confrontations with law enforcement officers, increasingly targeting agents and facilities related to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement in opposition to the agency’s deportation actions.

Evidence at trial revealed that most of the Antifa Cell involved in the Prairieland attack looked to Benjamin Song as a leader. Song acquired firearms that he distributed to co-defendants and recruited members at gun ranges and combat sessions he conducted, as well as from various ideologically aligned groups. For example, defendants Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto, and Savanna Batten were part of a group that created and distributed insurrectionary materials called “zines,” according to trial evidence.

Trial testimony reflected that, late at night on July 4, at least eleven of the defendants rioted and attacked the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was using to house illegal aliens awaiting deportation. The defendants dressed in “black bloc”—dark clothing with head and face coverings that concealed their identities—designed to hide each individual’s identity but also to aid and abet those members engaged in illegal acts by making members indistinguishable from one another to law enforcement. Evidence introduced at trial revealed that the defendants brought eleven firearms, body armor, and eleven military-grade first aid kits with tourniquets and other items for gunshot wounds to the scene of the attack. Many of these items were introduced by the government as exhibits. Additionally, fingerprint evidence linked many of the defendants to the items at the scene, and evidence obtained on phone locations supported that those who participated in the attack all turned off their phones or placed them in Faraday bags to prevent tracking on the night of the attack.

After Antifa Cell members arrived at Prairieland, they began shooting off and throwing fireworks (explosives) at the facility and vandalizing vehicles and a guard shack on Prairieland property:

Witnesses testified that an Alvarado police officer responded to the scene after correctional officers called 911. When the officer began issuing commands to defendant Nathan Baumann, Benjamin Song can be heard on police bodycam video yelling, “get to the rifles!” and then he opened fire on the officers, striking the Alvarado police officer in the neck as the unarmed correctional officers ducked and ran for cover. Police arrested most of the Antifa Cell shortly after the attack, many near the scene. Benjamin Song escaped and remained at large with the help of others until his capture on July 15, 2025.

Nine Antifa members convicted of attack on Texas ICE facilityhttps://t.co/tYM7CaQB2g

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 14, 2026

Read more at Daily Mail

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