A 20‑year‑old Florida man, Nick Guadalupe Cruz‑Lopez, has been arrested and charged with making a threat to kill the president of the United States after allegedly posting a message on Instagram saying “MAGA Otw to kill trump” along with a photo of himself holding an AR‑15‑style rifle inside a vehicle.
How the post triggered the case
The U.S. Secret Service received a “voluntary emergency disclosure” from Meta on April 2 about a concerning post from the Instagram account “813.cruzz.” The public post, described in a federal criminal complaint, showed Cruz‑Lopez holding the rifle in a car and contained the phrase “MAGA Otw to kill trump,” which agents treated as a direct threat to President Donald Trump. The image also captured a distinct tattoo on his forearm, which later helped confirm his identity.
Meta provided location coordinates tying the post to the area of St. Pete Beach, Florida, about 125 miles southwest of Orlando. Using automated license‑plate‑reader data, agents saw a gray Honda registered to Cruz‑Lopez in that same area earlier that day. Linked phone records from T‑Mobile pointed to Cruz‑Lopez as the subscriber, and investigators matched his driver’s license photo and vehicle to the information. A TikTok account under “@813.cruzz” with the same forearm tattoo further confirmed the match.
Arrest and maximum penalty
Federal agents located Cruz‑Lopez later that same day and took him into custody in Plant City, Florida. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida says the case was built entirely through digital evidence and interagency cooperation.
If convicted of the single federal charge of making a threat to kill the president, Cruz‑Lopez faces up to five years in federal prison. Prosecutors have not alleged that he actually planned or attempted to carry out an attack, but the law treats such public, specific threats to the president as a serious offense aimed at protecting national leaders and deterring similar online rhetoric.
