The apparent leader along with an acolyte of a disturbing radical vegan cult tied to a trail of horrific murders in the US have been captured, Maryland State Police said Monday.
Jack “Ziz” Lasota, 34, and Michelle Zajko, 33, both of the bizarre group the “Zizians,” were taken into custody Sunday and hit with a slew of charges, including trespassing, obstruction and illegal firearm possession, authorities said.
A bail hearing for the pair is set for Tuesday morning.
Jack Lasota, the apparent leader of the Zizians, was arrested Sunday. APA cross-country manhunt was sparked last month after Zajko was suspected of supplying the guns used by accused killer Teresa Youngblut, another cult member, to fatally shoot border agent David Maland, 44, during a traffic stop near the Canadian border on Jan. 20.
The feds previously said Zajko is sought in the Jan. 2023 slayings of her parents inside their Pennsylvania home.
The cultlike group is filled with intellectual computer scientists, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who have pushed out online writing including topics like radical veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence, the Associated Press reported.
Lasota, who goes by she/her pronouns and has said she is a transgender woman, appears to be the head of the Zizians and landed on law enforcement’s radar because of her connections to various suspects and proximity to multiple crime scenes.
FBI agents search a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, where two members of the Zizians who were involved in the shooting death of a US Border Patrol agent in Vermont, had been renting homes. APShe runs a grim and at times violent blog under the name “Ziz” that theorizes that the two hemispheres of the brain possibly hold different values and genders “with often a desire to kill each other.”
Lasota has also lashed out against perceived enemies, including so-called rationalist groups, which are mostly online and want to further grasp human cognition through reason and knowledge while some question the possible pitfalls of AI.
Border Patrol Agent David Maland was killed by two Zizian followers. APThe group became highly scrutinized after Youngblut, 21, and German national Felix Bauckholt, allegedly opened fire on agents in Coventry, Vermont after the pair were pulled over last month.
Both Maland, the border agent, and Bauckholt, were killed in the gunfire. Youngblut, who was wounded, has pleaded not guilty to federal gun charges.
The lethal connections among group members spanned coast to coast.
Youngblut, 21, previously applied for a marriage license with Maximilian Snyder, 22, who is charged with murdering an 82-year-old landlord on Jan. 17 in California.
Online writings of the Zizians span topics from radical veganism and gender identity to artificial intelligence. APThat landlord, Curtis Lind, was attacked by other cult members in November when he tried to evict them from a property he owned in Vallejo.
He ultimately shot Emma Borhanian, 31, in what prosecutors called self-defense, but was impaled by a sword and partially blinded during the clash before he was allegedly killed by Snyder months later.
Alexander Leatham, 29, and Suri Dao, who were allegedly involved in the November fatal incident, were charged with murder in Borhanian’s death and the attempted murder of Lind.
Authorities believe Lasota was at the scene of the crime, but was not arrested.
She has missed court hearings in other cases and an arrest warrant had been issued for her.
With Post wires






