……….On the group’s Instagram page, it calls for violence.
“Peaceful protest will never be enough,” reads one post. “We are up against fascist colonizers…We cannot vote ourselves out of a mass colonizer occupation.”
Federal officials announced on Monday that they’d stopped a major terror threat targeting Los Angeles ahead of New Year’s Eve.
The FBI confirmed four individuals were taken into custody in connection with an alleged bombing plot, according to Fox News.
Authorities said the suspects claimed affiliation with a radical, pro-Palestinian group called the Turtle Island Liberation Front.
Investigators believe the suspects, who were not immediately named, were planning coordinated attacks scheduled for New Year’s Eve.
They were also said to be planning an explosives test before carrying out the onslaught.
The plot involved the use of improvised explosive devices, and five locations across Los Angeles were allegedly selected as targets.
Each of the four suspects has been charged with conspiracy and possession of a destructive device.
The FBI also announced that a fifth individual linked to the same extremist group was arrested in New Orleans, for allegedly planning a separate attack.
According to federal officials, a TILF Instagram account claims the group originated in Los Angeles and promotes the idea of liberating “Turtle Island” from what it calls American imperialism.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Department of Justice worked closely with the FBI to disrupt the plot.
She added that the group was also targeting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles.
“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. The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles,” she stated.
They were described as a far-left extremist group by the acting U.S. attorney, and as an anti-government organization by a high-ranking FBI official.
The defendants, Americans who live in the Los Angeles area, are:
— Audrey Carroll, 30
— Zachary Aaron Page, 32
— Dante Anthony-Gaffield, 24
— Tina Chen-Ting Lai, 41
The arraignments for Carroll, Page and Anthony-Gaffield are scheduled for Jan. 5 in federal court. Lai’s is scheduled for Jan. 2.
Anthony-Gaffield was ordered released on bond, though prosecutors are expected to appeal that ruling, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The defendant will stay in custody through the appeals process.
Carroll had allegedly come up with the plan in November, contained in an eight-page document, and handed it to the other co-conspirators, the complaint says: The plan included instructions on how to build a pipe bomb as well as measures to avoid being identified by law enforcement — going as far as to include putting a pebble in a shoe in order to change the way they walk.
It also urged the group to only make purchases in cash, use burner phones and then destroy SIM cards and put the devices in bricks to throw into the ocean, and to wear clothing and gloves in order to mask their identity and not leave DNA, the complaint says.
The bombs would be placed in backpacks and planted at multiple locations in Southern California, “targeting U.S. companies,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. The bombs would all be detonated at midnight and the sound would be masked by fireworks, the defendants allegedly said, according to the complaint.
Carroll and Page are accused by federal authorities of recruiting others to join in on the plan, Essayli said.
The defendants would communicate and coordinate through Signal on a chat titled, “Order of the Black Lotus,” the complaint says. Carroll also met up with the other defendants on multiple occasions this month leading up to Friday, Dec. 12, when the group was to meet at a campsite in Lucerne Valley to test the improvised explosive devices.They also discussed future plans for after the new year targeting U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles, the complaint says. Carroll allegedly mentioned at one point that the plan was to “take some of them out and scare the rest,” Essayli said.
Unbeknownst to Carroll, officials said, one with the group was a confidential source for federal authorities and another is an FBI agent. The confidential source traveled with two of the defendants in one vehicle to the desert, while the FBI agent traveled in the other.
“What we’re doing will be considered a terrorist act,” Carroll allegedly said while describing the plans in detail on the way to Lucerne Valley.
The suspects “all brought bomb-making components to the campsite,” the complaint says, including PVC pipes, suspected potassium nitrate, charcoal, sulfur powder and “material to be used as fuses.”
After setting up all the materials on tables and preparing to grind one of the precursor powders used to create an explosive black powder, they were arrested at the site, authorities said.
The complaint indicates that Audrey Illeene Carroll, Zachary Aaron Page, Dante Gaffield, and Tina Lai—who were charged by federal prosecutors with conspiracy and possession of unregistered destructive devices following their Friday arrest—hold significant ties to the anti-Israel movement. They belong to the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), “an anti-capitalist, anti-government movement” centered around militant, anti-Israel rhetoric and open endorsement of violence.
Their alleged plot included spray painting upside-down triangles—a symbol Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets—near the buildings they planned to bomb. A search of Carroll’s residence also uncovered posters with Hamas triangles seen on TILF’s Instagram page, which have also appeared at the group’s protests, and a photograph of the group’s bomb-making stations included “Free Palestine” stickers.
The TILF members allegedly planned to target two companies in their attack. While the complaint did not name the companies, the group protested against Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense company, outside its Los Angeles office earlier this month. “These genocidal war criminals have no place in our city, and no place in Palestine. Never let them live in peace,” the group wrote on Instagram.
TILF, which is named after an indigenous term for North America, has also expressed support for “Arab resistance” and has appeared at protests displaying signs reading “Israel has the right to go to hell.” Other slogans promoted by the group include “Free Palestine or scorch the earth.” The group has also called for “Death to ICE,” and “Death to America.”
The day after the arrests, the TILF group was scheduled to participate in a Palestine-focused market event in Los Angeles sponsored by left-wing activist group Code Pink, which has worked on behalf of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members.
…….Federal investigators began uncovering the scheme after a confidential informant embedded in the group reported that Carroll, who runs TILF’s Instagram account, had distributed copies of an eight-page handwritten attack plan, dubbed “Operation Midnight Sun,” during in-person meetings with other TILF members. According to the complaint, the informant provided the FBI with a physical copy of the document and later recorded additional meetings in which the plot was discussed in detail.
The attack plan laid out instructions for constructing complex pipe bombs, conducting surveillance, evading law enforcement, and destroying evidence after the attack. It called for coordinated teams to plant backpacks with explosive devices at five separate locations and detonate them simultaneously at midnight on Dec. 31, 2025. The plot explicitly cited New Year’s Eve fireworks as a way to mask the sound of explosions and delay detection by authorities.
………Investigators also obtained access to encrypted communications used by the group. According to Signal messages reviewed by the FBI, the conspirators used a group chat titled “Order of the Black Lotus”—described by Carroll as their space “for everything radical”—to coordinate logistics, assign roles, share bomb-making instructions, and plan a Mojave Desert trip to test the explosive devices. FBI agents intervened as the suspects began assembling explosive components at their desert site, arresting all four before a functional device could be constructed.
The best thing to do with these radical leftie zealots, is strap some pipe bombs to their ass as part of a New Years Eve fireworks display.