FBI Foils NYE Terror Plot in LA

Four people from an “anti-capitalist, anti-government” extremist group accused of hatching a plot to carry out coordinated bombings in and around Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve were in court Monday, as a trans suspect begged the judge to be sent to a women’s jail.

The “credible, imminent terrorist threat” to five unidentified companies’ logistics centers in Southern California came from radical members of an offshoot of the left-wing Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), FBI Director Kash Patel and other law enforcement officials revealed Monday.

The splinter group called themselves the Order of the Black Lotus and passed along an “eight-page, handwritten document titled ‘OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN'” that laid out the bombing plot to a confidential FBI source, according to a criminal complaint filed Saturday in Los Angeles federal court.

Four of the suspects were collared in Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert, where they were captured on video attempting to test improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Los Angeles first assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli told reporters at a news conference.

The quartet — Audrey Ilene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41 — have been charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device. A fifth unidentified suspect was arrested in New Orleans while planning a separate attack.

Page, who identified as a woman, asked the judge to be sent to a women’s jail. Their case was continued to Friday for a detention hearing.

Carroll was jailed without bond and will have an arraignment on Jan. 5. Gaffield was set to be released on bond, but will be held in custody while prosecutors appeal the decision. Lai was detained until her arraignment on Jan. 2. None of the suspects submitted pleas.

Carroll and Page led the group and convened a private Signal chat where they used codenames, with Carroll identified as “Asiginaak,” Page identified as “Ash Kerrigan” or “cthulu’s daughter,” Gaffield as “Nomad” and Lai as “Kickwhere.”

The group had begun assembling the “complex pipe bombs” with “homemade gunpowder” in the desert when FBI agents arrested them on Dec. 12.

“Carroll’s bomb plot was explicit,” Essayli said. “It included step-by step instructions to build IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, and listed multiple targets across Orange County and Los Angeles. Carroll also made clear her desires. She said, ‘What we are doing will be considered a terrorist act.'”

The sophisticated criminal scheme involved each participant wearing so-called “BlacBloc” clothing, using burner phones, wearing gloves, concealing their hair, paying for black powder pipe bomb materials in cash and even “placing a small pebble in a shoe to alter natural gait to obfuscate their identification,” the complaint stated.

The radicals had also planned to target “property and facilities operated by two separate companies that are used or engaged in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce.”

At a Dec. 7 meeting, Page suggested it was “100,000[%]” likely that the FBI would be tracking them and suggested all members take appropriate precautions, while Carroll shared she had purchased 13 PVC pipes and two five-pound bags of “potassium nitrate on Amazon using a burner account” for the bombs.

Carroll and Page also discussed follow-up attacks — including plans to target ICE agents and vehicles with pipe bombs in January or February 2026, according to Essayli and the complaint, which Carroll said “would take some of them out and scare the rest.”

In a separate Signal exchange with the FBI’s source, Carroll revealed she “kind of had this notebook where I wrote down multiple plans that never happened or got delayed / so it’s like / my terrorist diary / lmaooooo / I have to get rid of that.”

The foursome were scheduled to make an initial appearance in Los Angeles federal court at 4:30 p.m. ET Monday.

“We intend to file additional charges in the coming weeks as we finish reviewing the evidence,” Essayli said. “The defendants are all radical anti-government members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which, according to their own social media, is an anti-capitalist, anti-gun movement movement that calls for their associates to rise up and fight back against capitalism.”

Search warrants were executed nationwide in connection with the domestic terror probe, via a “complex and coordinated” effort singling out the accused terrorists’ properties.

Posters were discovered at Page’s residentce stating “Death to America, Long Live Turtle Island and Palestine” and “Death to ICE, Turtle Island Liberation Front,” Essayli said.

“This investigation crossed the entire country,” FBI Los Angeles Field Office assistant director in charge Akil Davis also confirmed at Monday’s press conference.

The TILF’s Los Angeles chapter has posted photos on its Instagram of its members waving Palestinian flags and brandishing a “Death to ICE!!!” sign — and proclaimed that it “is dedicated to ‘Liberation through decolonization and tribal sovereignty,’” the criminal complaint shows.

“Turtle Island” is an indigenous term for the continent of North America that has been appropriated by Black Lives Matter and other left-wing activist groups.

The FBI affidavit said that “content on the account references that TILF calls for liberation of their lands and people, and decolonization and tribal sovereignty.”

“TILF also calls for the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism,” the affidavit noted. “Moreover, TILF advocates that liberalism and peaceful protest will be the downfall of those who believe it is enough, and that ‘direct action is the only way.’”

Essayli credited President Trump’s Sept. 22 executive order targeting domestic terror organizations like Antifa with having helped the feds begin the investigation that ultimately foiled the attack.

“As the president made clear, recent attacks across the country have highlighted the grave threats posed by these far-left domestic terror groups,” Essayli said Monday.

“These threats are sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity and direct policy outcomes, and prevent the proper functioning of a democratic society.”

“After an intense investigation, the Department of Justice, working with our @FBI, prevented what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California (Orange County and Los Angeles),” Attorney General Pam Bondi also posted Monday on X.

“The Turtle Island Liberation Front — a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group — was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve,” Bondi said. “The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.”

“This was an incredible effort by our US Attorneys’ Offices and the @FBI to ensure Americans can live in peace. We will continue to pursue these terror groups and bring them to justice.”