Police Arrest Alleged Leader of Anarchist Vegan Cult Linked to CBP Agent Murder and Other Crimes

The accused leader and another member of a small group of vegan activists on the West Coast have been arrested. They are linked to several crimes and the killing of a Border Patrol agent.

Fox News Digital was told by the Maryland State Police that Jack “Ziz” LaSota, 34, of Berkeley, California, Michelle Zajko, 32, of Media, Pennsylvania, and another person were taken on Sunday afternoon on charges that had nothing to do with the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David “Chris” Maland.

Around 2:30 p.m. on February 16, police said LaSota was arrested and charged with trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and having a firearm in a car. At the same time, Zajko was arrested in Frostburg, Maryland, on the same charges plus resisting arrest and having a handgun on the person.

There is a link between LaSota and Zajko and a cult-like group called the “Zizians.” A close friend of the two, Jessica Taylor, told the Boston Globe that the group believed in theories of artificial intelligence, moral reasoning, and veganism.

“They have this kind of anarchist, vegan critique of society,” Taylor told the news source. “They think that you might do some violence that your society doesn’t like, but your society does violence everywhere.”

The group has been linked to the January killing of Agent Maland near the border with Canada, as well as five other killings in Vermont, Pennsylvania, and California.

After Maland was killed, a national search began for Zajko.

Maland was from Minnesota and had been in the Air Force. He worked as a Border Patrol agent at the Newport Station of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He worked for the federal government for 15 years and was in the service for nine years.

It’s still not clear why some of the group members came to Vermont.

Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt, a German citizen, and Teresa “Milo” Consuelo Youngblut, a student at the University of Washington, are accused of shooting and killing Maland during a traffic stop on January 20 near the border between Canada and Vermont.

As reported by the Albany Times Union based on court records, Zajko is said to have bought the.40-caliber and.380-caliber handguns used in Maland’s shooting in Mount Tabor, Vermont, in February 2024.

Prosecutors said Zajko is also a “person of interest” in a double murder in Pennsylvania and another death in California, but they did not say her name.