FBI Nabs LA Riot Instigator Accused of Handing Out ‘Bionic Shields’
One of the key organizers has been arrested by the FBI after being filmed allegedly distributing “bionic shields”—high-tech face masks designed to block facial recognition and resist gas and impact.
As downtown Los Angeles continues to resemble a war zone, what began as protests against ICE enforcement has spiraled into full-blown riots—burned-out cars, smashed windows, and masked mobs blocking streets. But this isn’t just chaos. It’s coordinated.
One of the key organizers has been arrested by the FBI after being filmed allegedly distributing “bionic shields”—high-tech face masks designed to block facial recognition and resist gas and impact. This wasn’t grassroots outrage. This was a tactical operation.
As seen in footage from Fox11, the organizer was caught on camera allegedly handing out the face shields to protesters as they clashed with police:
NEW: News crews spotted individuals involved in the anti-ICE protest delivering and handing out Bionic Face Shields to protesters.
One of these masks goes for $32 on Amazon.
Find out who paid for them, and you’ll know who’s funding the agitators. pic.twitter.com/DwRsYqKLkO
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) June 10, 2025
It took a few days, but law enforcement caught up with him:
— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) June 12, 2025
The New York Post has more:
The FBI collared an alleged Los Angeles riot leader who they say handed out dozens of face shields to anti-ICE rioters on the streets of Los Angeles.
The FBI nabbed Alejandro Theodoro Orellana Thursday morning. He faces a charge of Conspiracy to Commit Civil Disorders, US Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said on X.
Here is Bill Essayli’s full statement:
ARRESTED: Alejandro Theodoro Orellana was arrested this morning by @FBILosAngeles on an allegation of Conspiracy to Commit Civil Disorders (18 USC 371) for distributing face shields to suspected rioters on Tuesday. We are moving quickly to identify and arrest those involved in… pic.twitter.com/Ase8kxupfp
— U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) June 12, 2025
Orellana will be charged with Conspiracy to Commit Civil Disorders (18 USC 371), which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison or a substantial fine.
I think Legal Insurrection readers will agree: as violence against law enforcement continues, it’s time to throw the book at these rioters
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
“designed to block facial recognition”
Now there’s a product claim I have not seen.
Yeah, I think that is fake news. This is just a face shield which are regularly used in industry to block debris and sparks. No good as a gas mask either.
Yup. This mask doesn’t provide the seal necessary to keep gas away from the face. It’s just an impact shield.
That is as baby. But the ones to whom they are being handed believe this. To which I say, good! When the teargas starts up, they’re in for a big surprise.
That’s as baby =‘Thats as may be.
Stop the baby talk.
I do not think it’s a product claim, so much as it will do that because the transparent portion is thick and the sides will block oblique camera angles.
And, I think there are product claims about gases, but I think they are about jetting gases that might be coming off a welder, etc. It blocks the jets from hitting you, but doesn’t stop the gasses involved from coming around.
I think someone is making more of it than they should, intentionally or not.
Not for sale in China.
Just a delivery boy. Pressure needs to be applied to discover who paid him, and follow the links as far up as possible.
Nice Amish name there….
Listened to KFI this AM…. the area of the riots constitutes 1% of LA area and 29% of commerce as this is major area of governmental infrastructure. 29% isn’t some East LA junk yard.
Exactly. I see no reason to believe that someone doing low level grunt work like handing out face masks is a “key organizer.” More likely just a useful idiot.
Still, a good interrogator might be able to get some decent intel out of him.
It seems weird to me that someone can be arrested for handing out a legal product.
It seems even weirder to me that you think it’s weird to arrest someone handing out legal items to people fully intent on using those legal items to commit crimes.
According to your comment then you could arrest either a gun manufacturer or a gun store owner for selling a gun to someone who then uses it to commit crimes. Not just guns but pretty much anything else. This tends to be a progressive argument and one that they try to encode into law all the time.
Your interpretation of my comment is incorrect. A gun manufacturer and a gun store can of COURSE sell a gun to someone legally entitled to own one. If a gun store sells a gun to someone that they KNOW will use that gun to commit a crime, then that gun store is also guilty of a crime.
Senor Orellana dropped off riot shields to people he KNEW were going to use them to commit crimes. That makes him an accessory andor an accomplice.
What part of that escapes you?
We’ll find out eventually what happens to this guy and why.
Hopefully what happens to him is he rolls over on his funders and then pulls a full nickel anyway.
Perhaps we need to consult with Attorney General Holder to get clarification of this issue.
During the occupation of the CHAZ in Seattle, a person known to LE (claimed to be the “king of the CHAZ” or some such nonsense) was videoed handing out ARs from the trunk of his car. Despite the fact that Washington State had recently adopted a law requiring background checks even on personal transfers of firearms, he suffered no legal ramifications.
Orellana will be charged with Conspiracy to Commit Civil Disorders (18 USC 371)
He is accused of organizing, supporting, funding or facilitating these riots.
Yeah I saw that. They have to have more evidence than he handed out some masks. I hope they do.
Think if this riot were a bunch of people breaking into cars but unwilling to smash the windows? And someone pulls up in a truck and starts handing out those slim jims? It then immediately becomes a tool for breaking and entering. Anyone in the crowd possessing one can be arrested for it. The hander-out becomes an accessory.
Some guy handing those things out on a normal street corner on an otherwise normal day wouldn’t be subject to arrest (except maybe for blocking the sidewalk). But you have him drive into the middle of a riot and the situation changes. It’s about intent.
Now, if someone walks up, politely takes the proffered mask and then quietly exits the area without doing anything untoward, you probably would have a hard time prosecuting them for possessing the mask.
I thought the same until I read the article,.
That is pure sophistry. He most certainly was NOT ‘arrested for handing out a legal product’. He wasn’t arrested for handing out benign items motivated by charity out of the goodness of his heart. He was arrested for handing out materials useful for rioters in the middle of several days of intense riots in the City where the riots kicked off. IOW he was arrested/charged with conspiracy to commit civil disorder b/c by handing large quantities of these items out he demonstrated planning and knowledge of how/where/when they would be used by the members of the riotous mob.
FWIW glass bottles, diesel fuel, shop rags, dish soap, Borax, lighter fluid and a bic lighter are likewise ‘legal’ products. So are metal pipes, screw tops, nails, black powder, fireworks, lantern wicks, a bic lighter and Heck lets add some tannerite for fun….all ‘legal’ products. How about some mayonnaise jars, baby food jars, ammonia and bleach in a nested combo like a matryoshka doll…all legal but when thrown against a hard surface… the jars shatter and the chemicals mix…not very nice or healthy.
Don’t like those examples of legal products b/c we’d have to combine them? OK how about distribution of good old Louisville Slugger baseball bats? Framing hammers? Fireworks? Road flares?
How about palettes of bricks? (As in the last go-round of the St. George riots.)
Yeah, those were just left sitting around by random contractors who had bricks they needed to unload.
Yes indeed, for that matter how about sheets of plywood with 2 and 3/4 inch screws embedded? A flatbed or several pick ups with trailers could bring a bunch of those things in quickly as a makeshift but mobile ‘spike strip’ or caltrops to hinder vehicles or LEO on foot. All sorts of very common, ordinary and totally legal items can be used for nefarious purposes. The key takeaway is the criminal act doesn’t turn on whether the item distributed is ‘legal’. It turns on usefulness of item to riotous mob, the # distributed, the past practices of rioters in using the items and how, who funded the purchase of them.
I;m kind of hoping he’s a thread they can pull to unravel a conspiracy because there is a conspiracy and Id like to see the bigger fish fry because they never do.
Conspiracies flow downhill too. Co-conspirators could include anyone who took a mask. Also, co-conspirators don’t have to be identified, or, if identified, don’t have to be indicted or charged.
Yes, it would be nice to roll up the chain. But it’s not necessary to charge “conspiracy.”
Yeah… gasoline is legal and so are glass bottles, rags, and styrofoam but try handing out molotov cocktails near a riot site and see what happens.
However, protective equipment, even if for law breakers (rioters) does seem a stretch. Still nothing has ever stopped the FBI from arresting someone on dubious premises.
Even if a lawyer eventually gets him found not guilty the odds are that the government will have been able to trace the face shields back to whoever paid for them. And, no doubt they’ll be able to find out who is paying for his lawyer. THAT is the object of the exercise.
“However, protective equipment, even if for law breakers (rioters) does seem a stretch.”
Tell the blue states who have made possession of ballistic vests illegal.
Guns and knives are legal until the homicide.
Kings now wear masks and keep the crown on the dash.
Don’t worry, illegal immigration isn’t a problem, they’ll assimilate, we need lots of grass cutters, baby sitters, etc….blah blah blah.
Without illegals, who will blow the leaves around in the parking lot?
back when I was a kid I remember looking out the car window and watching inmate from the penitentiary picking up along the highway
One of my happy life memories…
VP of our new computer startup (a CA/MA technocrat) flies down to VA to help give a presentation to a major federal client. Salesman and I pick him up at Dulles to drive him to the presentation. On the way, pass a shackled-up chain gang in orange jumpers doing highway maintenance. Look on the VP’s face was priceless. Salesman (originally from TX) drawls, “Yup, that’s a thing down here, Edgar”
I had a similar experience. My close friends at NMMI and I went to South Padre Island for one spring break. The two guys from CA were astounded when we entered Texas and a prison work gang was using sling blades to trim the grass along the highway with guards armed with shotguns and rifles overseeing them. NMMI is a military school so the students are generally very supportive of law and order. These CA surfer dudes were all in favor of bringing that back to CA.
Still see that from time to time on my way to the CBD in my area. My city does not play.
I’m sure Milhouse will be along to correct me, but…
was caught on camera allegedly handing out the face shields
Wrong. They are not allegedly handing out the shields. They are ABSOLUTELY handing out the shields. That is not an alleged thing, it is factually happening right in front of our eyes. You might state the person(s) arrested are alleged to be the ones in the video. But the acts in the video are not alleged.
Maybe it takes more words/longer sentences to make that clear, and I understand the desire for brevity. But I think it has seeped into people’s brains, and we need to turn it around. The acts most certainly occurred, with the only question being is the person arrested the one in the video.
It’s a little bit of pedantry, maybe, but it seems right.
Never forget that Rudy Guliani forgot to say “allegedly” when he was describing the video that we all saw of Ruby Freeman counting the same ballot multiple times and it cost him $148 million!
Brevity:
“Alejandro Theodoro Orellana was arrested Thursday. Law enforcement alleges it was Orellana who was videoed distributing face masks to rioters three days ago.”
It’s not that difficult. Writers (and editors) are just lazy sometimes.
since he gave them to people rioting then he is guilty
had he just handed them to people walking in a protest..it might have been tough to actually convict
THIS IS GREAT WORK BY THE FBI
Yes, great work by the FBI, the deep state group that should be dismantled and razed to the ground as terrorists opposed to Trump. Oops. That was when Biden was President. Now the FBI is a patriotic much needed organization which should always be trusted now because Trump is President.
Shut up, retard.
You’re not wanted here.
Leadership is everything.
Wifey says FOX had an interview today with 2 LA demonstraters who were getting paid $200 per day and due in NY City next. I would think Bondi would be raining down RICO indictments on everyone, but seems AWOL so far.
subsidized insigator