Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday that the FBI disrupted what she called a “massive and horrific terror plot” by a homegrown extremist group allegedly planning a wave of bombings in Orange County and Los Angeles, California, beginning on New Year’s Eve.
Bondi said the group, identified as the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), is a far-left, anti-government and anti-capitalist organization that also espouses pro-Palestinian causes. According to Bondi, the cell’s alleged plan included attacks on commercial targets and later assaults on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and their vehicles.
At a news conference in Los Angeles, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and FBI Los Angeles assistant director in charge Akil Davis said four suspects were arrested and charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device. Further charges are expected.
Alleged plotters and the ‘Operation Midnight Sun’ plan
The four defendants were identified as Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30, Zachary Aaron Page, 32, Dante Gaffield, 24, and Tina Lai, 41, all from the Los Angeles area, officials said.
Davis said the group is accused of planning to plant backpacks containing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at multiple locations in Southern California, with detonations timed for midnight on New Year’s Eve to blend in with fireworks and celebrations. The targets included at least five sites linked to two U.S. companies described as logistics centers in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
According to a federal criminal complaint, Carroll gave an FBI confidential human source a handwritten document in November titled “Operation Midnight Sun.” The document allegedly laid out the bombing plan, including maps, assignments, and timelines.
Investigators say the group intended to split into teams to plant backpack bombs around their assigned buildings. An “off-ground team member” was tasked with monitoring police scanners to track any law enforcement response and relay updates to those at the scenes, according to the complaint.
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‘Order of the Black Lotus’ and desert bomb tests
Prosecutors say Carroll and the others set up a Signal messaging channel called the “Order of the Black Lotus,” which Carroll allegedly described as a radical faction within the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group allegedly used the encrypted chat to refine their plan, discuss targets and share instructions for building explosives.
The complaint says the suspects traveled to the Mojave Desert earlier this month to test explosive mixtures and rehearse the Operation Midnight Sun bombing plot. Aerial surveillance footage released by authorities shows individuals moving a large black object onto a table in the desert as investigators monitored the scene.
The FBI moved in on Friday, arresting the four as they were allegedly assembling or rehearsing with bomb-making materials. Officials said they seized PVC pipes, chemical precursors and detailed instructions but were able to act before any fully functional device was completed.
Ideology and alleged plans to target ICE
Searches of Carroll’s residence and other locations tied to the group turned up posters and materials associated with the Turtle Island Liberation Front, according to the complaint. Among them were slogans reading “DEATH TO ICE” and “DEATH TO AMERICA, LONG LIVE TURTLE ISLAND & PALESTINE,” as well as “Free Palestine” flyers found at the desert campsite.
Authorities say those materials, combined with online posts and chat logs, point to a blend of anti-government, anti-capitalist and pro-Palestinian ideology. Prosecutors allege that after the New Year’s Eve logistics-center bombings, the group discussed follow-up attacks that would “take out” ICE agents and target their vehicles with pipe bombs.
Davis described the defendants as “members of a radical faction of the Turtle Island Liberation Front” and said the FBI considers them part of a violent homegrown extremist threat.
Fifth arrest and ongoing investigation
In addition to the four suspects arrested in California, FBI Director Kash Patel said a fifth person believed to be linked to TILF was taken into custody in New Orleans in connection with what officials described as a separate planned attack. Details of that alleged plot have not yet been made public.
All four California defendants were scheduled to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon. If convicted of the charges already filed, they face significant prison time, and prosecutors signaled that additional counts could follow as investigators analyze seized devices, documents and digital evidence.
Officials declined to identify the specific companies allegedly targeted, citing the ongoing Operation Midnight Sun bombing plot investigation. Essayli described them only as large logistics operations tied to interstate commerce.
Bondi said the case shows how quickly a small group can move from online rhetoric to real-world planning — and how critical confidential sources and surveillance are to stopping attacks before they happen.
“This plot was designed to cause maximum chaos at a moment when families were gathered to celebrate the new year,” Bondi said. “Because of swift action by the FBI and our partners, those bombs never went off.”
Sources:
AP News – “4 charged with plotting New Year’s Eve attacks in Southern California, prosecutors say”
Reuters – “FBI foils bombing plot targeting Los Angeles, US attorney general says”
