BREAKING: Cult Leader Jack ‘Ziz’ LaSota and Michelle Zajko Arrested in Maryland UPDATE: Third Suspect Also Captured
Posted on | February 17, 2025 | Comments Off on BREAKING: Cult Leader Jack ‘Ziz’ LaSota and Michelle Zajko Arrested in Maryland UPDATE: Third Suspect Also Captured

Jack ‘Ziz’ LaSota (left); Michelle Zajko (right)
Radical Vegan Transgender Death Cult members now behind bars:
Two individuals affiliated with the Zizians, a fringe movement with ties to Vallejo that is allegedly linked to killings in several states, were arrested Sunday evening in Allegany County, Maryland, according to county records.
Michelle Jacqueline Zajko and Jack Amadeus LaSota — also known as “Ziz,” according to media reports — were arrested and charged with several misdemeanors, according to Maryland court records.
Both were charged with misdemeanor firearm possession charges, trespassing on private property and “obstructing & hindering” a police officer, according to court records. Zajko also faces an additional charge of resisting or interfering with arrest.
Detailed information about the arrests and charges was not immediately available early Monday afternoon.
Maryland State Police officer Brandon Jeffries, who is based in Cumberland, Maryland, carried out both arrests, according to county records. Zajko was booked into the Allegany County Detention Center at 6:12 p.m. Sunday, while LaSota was booked at 7:40 p.m.
Lt. Elizabeth Shoemake, the director of operations at the Allegany County Detention Center, confirmed that LaSota and Zajko are currently detained at the facility.
Shoemake said she could not comment on the circumstances of the arrests, but she said that the two were not arrested based on a warrant, but rather “on-site activity.”
Both Zajko and LaSota have bail review hearings scheduled for tomorrow.
That’s about an hour’s drive west of here.
UPDATE: These dangerous criminals are being held in Cumberland, Maryland, and I don’t know what time the court hearing is on Tuesday, but it’s definitely within driving distance.
Ziz & Jamie arrestedhttps://t.co/svdRuDbBjT https://t.co/pdex3HnzDc pic.twitter.com/ekmc0S2VYh
— jessicat (@jessi_cata) February 17, 2025
UPDATE II: Another known associate of the Zizian cult, Daniel Blank, is also under arrest in Allegany County:
Daniel Blank as well pic.twitter.com/mZj8v6TIlv
— jessicat (@jessi_cata) February 17, 2025
UPDATE III: Andy Ngo, who was the first journalist to report on the Zizian cult, is understandably pleased by these arrests:
THEY GOT ‘EM!
BREAKING: The two wanted members of the Trantifa terror cult who have been on the run have been arrested. Watch: https://t.co/XVEgi2qoyr pic.twitter.com/wDCDYfuy4M
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 17, 2025
UPDATE IV: Andy Ngo points out that Daniel Blank had been considered a missing person since December 2022, and there were rumors that Blank was dead “but that was another lie.”

‘Zizian’ cult member Daniel Blank
To explain Daniel Blank’s role in the cult’s crime spree, recall that Michelle Zajko’s elderly parents were murdered on New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2022, or January 1, 2023). From NBC News:
Ten days after the Zajkos’ bodies were discovered, Pennsylvania state troopers showed up to a Candlewood Suites near the Philadelphia airport with a warrant to search the room and car of the dead couple’s daughter, Michelle Zajko. One of the troopers later testified in court that they were looking for the handgun believed to have been used in the killings.
The troopers knocked on Zajko’s hotel room door and took her into custody. As they were leading her out of the hotel, she called out to staff at the front desk and told them to tell a Daniel Blank that she was being detained, a trooper, Matthew Gibson, said in court, according to a transcript obtained by NBC News.
The troopers knew Blank. They had previously interviewed him in connection with the double homicide, Gibson later testified.
The troopers made their way to Blank’s room and banged on the door. Blank answered but refused to open it, Gibson said, prompting the troopers to return to their barracks to seek a search warrant for his hotel room.
When they returned with the warrant, no one responded to an order to open the door. So the troopers forced it open and found Blank and a second person in the bathroom, Gibson said in court.
The troopers arrested Blank and marched him out of the room. Things did not go as smoothly with the second person, identified in court papers as LaSota, the person also known as Ziz.
Troopers issued commands to LaSota, but LaSota “did not do anything,” Gibson later testified, according to a transcript obtained by NBC News.“He had his eyes closed. He would not speak,” Gibson added. “He was just laying almost unconscious as if he was dead on the ground.”
LaSota was ultimately charged with obstructing the investigation and disorderly conduct, according to a criminal complaint.
This ties Blank directly to both LaSota and Zajko. All three of them are likely “persons of interest” in the murder of Zajko’s parents.
UPDATE V: According to CNN, a hearing for the suspects “is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Allegany District Court,” which is 73 miles from here — a little over an hour drive, and I feel like I must be there for the hearing, which means that it’s time once again to remind readers that the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:
PREVIOUSLY:
- January 27: Radical Vegan Transgender Cult Implicated in Border Agent’s Death
- January 28: Vegan Transgender Death Cult Update
- January 30: Vegan Transgender Death Cult Update: Zizian ‘Anti-Law Enforcement Ideology’
- February 1: Real Murders, Fake Suicides: ‘Zizian’ Death Cult Fugitives Still at Large
- February 2: Scott Siskind Didn’t Start the Fire: Rationalism, NY Times and the Zizians
- February 16: Radical Vegan Transgender Death Cult Gets Mainstream Media Coverage
- February 17: ‘Remembrance’ for a Criminal
Save on Groceries and Everyday Essentials