Insurgency Infrastructure, Encrypted Chats and More [WATCH]

A Fox News Digital investigation found that the skirmish leading to the fatal shooting of agitator Alex Pretti, 37, by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday — and the nationwide protest response that followed — was driven by a coordinated network of far-left organizations operating through encrypted communications, rapid-response alerts, and a shared vehicle-tracking database.

According to the investigation, agitators were already mobilized at the scene minutes before any shots were fired.

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Federal immigration officers were in the area to arrest an illegal alien with a criminal history, and Pretti and others arrived outside Glam Doll Donuts on Nicollet Avenue as part of what officials described as a strategic pattern of organized interference with law enforcement operations.

Encrypted Signal messages reviewed by Fox News Digital showed anti-ICE “rapid responders” actively tracking and broadcasting the movements of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents in real time.

Local activists made at least 26 entries into a shared database known as “MN ICE Plates” in the hours surrounding the shooting, documenting license plate numbers and alleged ICE vehicle sightings near Nicollet Avenue.

The domestic terrorists in Minneapolis compiled 5,000 ICE license plates, but couldn’t find a single fraudulent Somalian daycare?

Organized crime is running Minnesota. https://t.co/iFlkPTV6yw

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 25, 2026

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One database entry, listed as row 344, read, “At the nicollet [sic] murder,” describing a black Jeep Wagoneer allegedly connected to the shooting. Another entry referenced a black Ford Taurus near Glam Doll Donuts.

The system categorizes vehicles as “Highly Suspected ICE,” “Confirmed ICE,” “Suspected ICE,” “Cleared – Not ICE,” and “Unknown.”

At 9:50 a.m. ET, just minutes before the shooting, a Signal user identified as “Willow” posted a 22-second video to an encrypted anti-ICE chat.

“26and 3rd,” the user wrote, followed by, “Outside Glam Doll.”

The video showed two agents, one wearing a vest marked “POLICE,” examining the donut shop before returning to a maroon Dodge Durango.

As the camera followed them, someone could be heard yelling, “No!” and later, “Get out of here!”

Three minutes later, at 9:53 a.m. ET, another user, “Salacious B. Crumb,” issued a broader alert: “Backup needed at the Black Forest Inn parking lot on Nicollet Ave just south of 26th Street.”

The message continued, “Multiple vehicles with many agents appear to be staging there.”

ICE Assistant Director Marcos Charles said Sunday that the violence was “not a coincidence,” citing the “chaos and mayhem” being fomented by organized agitators in Minneapolis.

At the same press conference, Customs and Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino confirmed that Pretti had been “on the scene several minutes” before the fatal shooting.

Video from the area showed Pretti stepping into the middle of Nicollet Avenue to direct traffic while fellow agitators blew whistles to alert others that federal agents were nearby.

The confrontation unfolded across the street from Glam Doll Donuts near a storefront labeled “NEW AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT CENTER,” a nonprofit focused on immigration entry programs for Somalis.

At approximately 10:05 a.m. ET, a Border Patrol agent shot Pretti, killing him.

Within minutes, the Signal network issued a red phone emoji alert signaling an all-points mobilization: “☎️ easy. URGENT: observers urgently requested at glam doll donuts @ 26th & nicollet [sic].” The alert added that “an observer has been shot by ice,” warned of possible chemical agents, and noted the presence of multiple federal agents and Minneapolis Police Department officers.

By late morning, boxes of supplies appeared on Minneapolis sidewalks, including bottled water, winter hats, and masks. Far-left organizations quickly amplified the incident nationwide, using short video clips and graphic posts to mobilize protests from New York City to Los Angeles.

Vice President J.D. Vance commented on the situation Sunday, stating, “This level of engineered chaos is unique to Minneapolis. It is the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities.”

This level of engineered chaos is unique to Minneapolis. It is the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities.

— JD Vance (@JDVance) January 25, 2026

BreakThrough News, a nonprofit media outlet affiliated with the People’s Forum, circulated video footage from inside Glam Doll Donuts under the caption, “BREAKING: Another CBP Shooting in Minneapolis.”

By Sunday afternoon, the video had accumulated more than 4.1 million views.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation soon followed with a graphic declaring, “CBP MURDERS ANOTHER IN MINNEAPOLIS,” alongside a call to “EXPAND THE GENERAL STRIKE!”

By early evening, multiple far-left groups — including Democratic Socialists of America, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee — had mobilized protests, while Black Lives Matter chapters participated in related demonstrations.

Activists openly carried signage identifying socialist, communist, and Marxist organizations.

By nightfall, prominent activists used inflammatory rhetoric online.

At 4:12 p.m. ET, Calla Walsh posted, “People of Minneapolis build barricades, trapping ICE Gestapo at the scene of their latest murder in broad daylight.”

As protests continued into the evening, the Signal networks remained active, with additional alerts tracking federal vehicles across Minneapolis.

The “MN ICE Plates” database listed 4,626 records by Sunday, including 2,933 labeled “Confirmed ICE” and 455 tagged as “Abductors,” despite a disclaimer stating the data was “for informational purposes only.”

The investigation concluded that the Minneapolis unrest reflected a coordinated rapid-response model in which tragedy is leveraged to fuel organized confrontation with law enforcement, a pattern previously seen following the 2020 George Floyd riots and earlier ICE-related shootings in the city.

As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters,…

— Eric Schwalm (@Schwalm5132) January 25, 2026

Retired Green Beret, Eric Schwalm weighed in with this lengthy comment on X:

“As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters, cutouts, dead drops (or modern equivalents), disciplined comms, role specialization, and a willingness to absorb casualties while bleeding the stronger force slowly.

What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook.

Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse.

This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells we hunted in the mid-2000s.

The most sobering part? It’s domestic. Funded, trained (somewhere), and directed by people who live in the same country they’re trying to paralyze law enforcement in. When your own citizens build and operate this level of parallel intelligence and rapid-response network against federal officers—complete with doxxing, vehicle pursuits, and harassment that’s already turned lethal—you’re no longer dealing with civil disobedience. You’re facing a distributed resistance that’s learned the lessons of successful insurgencies: stay below the kinetic threshold most of the time, force over-reaction when possible, maintain popular support through narrative, and never present a single center of gravity.

I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society. That should keep every thinking American awake at night.

Not because I want escalation. But because history shows these things don’t de-escalate on their own once the infrastructure exists and the cadre believe they’re winning the information war.

We either recognize what we’re actually looking at—or we pretend it’s still just “activism” until the structures harden and spread.

Your call, America. But from where I sit, this isn’t January 2026 politics anymore.
It’s phase one of something we’ve spent decades trying to keep off our own soil.”