PHOTOS: Armed Transgender Vegan Cult Members Linked to Six Killings Arrested in Maryland

Members of a “transgender vegan cult” were arrested on Sunday in Maryland after the group called the “Zizians” was linked to several deaths.

Among those arrested was the reported leader of the group, 34-year-old Jack LaSota, and 33-year-old Michelle Zajko, an article published by the Telegraph on Tuesday said.

Journalist Andy Ngô shared images of the suspects and said they were armed when officials arrested them in Allegheny County:

Ngô later said Zajko pretended to be dead in her first booking photo.

“I can exclusively confirm that Zajko recently shaved her head after being seen with longer hair when she was living with the cult in their preparations base in Chatham County, N.C.,” he added.

“Zajko, who is trans nonbinary, comes from a well-to-do family in Delaware County, Pa. In late 2022, her parents were shot execution-style at their home on New Year’s Eve. Zajko was the sole inheritor of her parents’ assets after her grandmother also died shortly soon after,” Ngô said:

Ngô reported that another member of the group, Daniel Arthur Blank, was also arrested.

“Blank had been missing from his family since late 2022. There were rumors he had died but this was another lie,” he explained:

LaSota and Zajko are facing charges including that include trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and possession of a handgun in the vehicle, the Associated Press (AP) reported Monday.

The outlet continued:

The Zizians have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California.

Maland, 44, was killed in a Jan. 20 shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Canadian border.

Officials have offered few details of the cross-country investigation, which broke open after the Jan. 20 shooting death of Maland. Associated Press interviews and a review of court records and online postings tell the story of how a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, met online, shared anarchist beliefs, and became increasingly violent.

An image shows Maland:

On February 11, Ngô shared video footage of LaSota when he was 22 years old and interning for NASA. He said LaSota started gaining members for his trans group in 2017 “and began wearing black robes.”

The clip shows LaSota talking about his education and projects:

“He used the name ‘Andrea Phelps’ and identifies as ‘she/her.’ LaSota faked his death in 2022 and is a person of interest in multiple homicides in California and Pennsylvania. He is accused of influencing or directing his trans comrades to kill people,” Ngô reported.