Law enforcement officials disrupted an attempt to attack the UFC cage fighting event staged at the White House on Sunday with guns and explosive-laden drones, and multiple people were in custody, federal US authorities said.

Five people were arrested from states including Ohio, Missouri and California, said a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. The official spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not yet public.

Federal court records in Cincinnati, Ohio, that were reviewed by the Guardian identify one of the arrested suspects as Tycen Proper, 19. Proper’s mother called the police on 10 June to report concerns about her son’s behavior, his purchase of firearms, and communications with individuals online, those court records said.

According to a federal criminal complaint filed against him, Proper said he had been in contact with individuals online since March. His mother said they claimed to be ex-military and Christian-based.

Local police then had Proper admitted to a hospital for homicidal ideation, and they contacted the FBI. In an interview with a case worker who was present, Proper told authorities that members of the group online believed the US was headed in the wrong direction. Proper also said that some did not want people involved with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – a former friend of Donald Trump – running the country.

Proper allegedly said he and others planned to first hold a demonstration outside the White House on Sunday as it hosted a mixed-martial arts extravaganza on the South Lawn. As that took place, the group would remotely fly drones “laden with unspecified explosives” over the fights and detonate them, Proper was accused of saying.

The explosions ostensibly would “force the crowd attending the … event and high value targets … to evacuate,” at which point attackers would fire on them with guns, Proper allegedly said.

“According to Proper, this attack was designed to ‘jumpstart’ a revolution in the United States,” the criminal complaint against him said.

The FBI director, Kash Patel, said in a post on X on Tuesday morning that “the rapid action of the FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation” had resulted in multiple arrests while stopping the planned violence “cold”.

Trump, who celebrated his 80th birthday at the UFC event on Sunday, sought to tie the fights to larger celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Fox News reported that investigators had identified 23 people potentially involved in a plot to attack the event. Officials told the network that the alleged plan involved using explosive‑laden drones and snipers and even possibly storming the White House gate.

Patel tweeted out a link to the Fox story which said the plot had come to the FBI’s attention on 10 June, four days before the UFC event at the White House, triggering the first arrest in Cincinnati.

Fox quoted a statement from the Secret Service on Tuesday.

“In the days leading up to this weekend, our special agents, mission support personnel, and technical security teams worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” said Sean Curran, the Secret Service director. “Equally important to our protective mission is ensuring accountability through the justice system. To that end, our formal comments regarding the specifics of this case will be made through court filings.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report