Three people linked to a group known as the Zizians are facing new felony charges related to firearms and illegal drug trafficking, on top of the misdemeanors that have kept them jailed in Maryland since February.
Members of the Zizians have been tied to violence in several states, including the fatal January shooting of a border patrol agent in northern Vermont.
The charges were filed last week against the three suspects who are named in court documents as Jack Amadeus LaSota, Michelle Jacqueline Zajko and Daniel Arthur Blank and who had previously been charged in Maryland with several misdemeanors each.
Those charges, including the unlawful possession of handguns, trespassing and obstructing arrest, stemmed from their arrest in Frostburg, Maryland, in February while allegedly camping on private property.
Now, prosecutors in Maryland’s Allegany County have brought a new indictment against each of them.
The new charges include felony counts of narcotic possession with intent to distribute and drug trafficking with the use of a firearm, according to court records and an article Wednesday in the Cumberland Times-News in Maryland.
The penalties for the latest felony charges, if they lead to convictions, carry up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors and attorneys for the three defendants could not be reached Wednesday afternoon for comment.
LaSota, Zajko and Blank have been in custody in Maryland since their initial arrest in February while the cases against them have been pending.
Zajko and LaSota have also been previously charged with federal offenses as has one other person linked to the Zizians in Vermont.
In the Vermont case, two people named in court records as Felix Bauckholt and Teresa Youngblut were pulled over by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent David Maland on Jan. 20 on Interstate 91 in Coventry.
Youngblut, according to court records, opened fire, leading to a shootout that left Maland and Bauckholt dead and Youngblut injured.
Youngblut, 21, of Washington state, faces federal firearms and assault charges but has not been charged directly with killing Maland. At a court hearing Tuesday in Youngblut’s case in Burlington, a defense attorney stated he expected federal prosecutors to file new charges against his client in “short order” that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Authorities have alleged that the guns that Youngblut and Bauckholt had at the time of the traffic stop in Vermont had been purchased by Zajko, who had lived for a time in Coventry.
Zajko has since been charged with a federal offense related to the purchases of firearms in Vermont. Zajko has not appeared in court in Vermont to face that charge.
LaSota, the alleged leader of the Zizians who blogged under the name “Ziz,” was federally indicted last week in Maryland on a charge of being an armed fugitive.
VTDigger is using Youngblut, LaSota and Bauckholt’s names and pronouns as they appear in court documents. While they have appeared to use other names in some instances, VTDigger has not been able to confirm which name each person uses in their day-to-day lives or their gender identities.
Authorities have linked the Zizians to other killings, including the January death of a landlord in Vallejo, California, and the 2022 fatal shootings of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania. None of the three Maryland defendants have been charged with any of the killings.
