In brief
A significant terror plot targeting several U.S. businesses on New Year’s Eve was disrupted when federal agents arrested four members of an extremist group called the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The suspects were found in a desert campsite rehearsing their plan with bomb-making components. Officials described the group's motivations as anti-capitalism and anti-government. Plans included the simultaneous detonation of improvised explosive devices at business locations, potentially coinciding with New Year fireworks to mask the explosions.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities said Monday that they foiled a plot to bomb multiple sites of two U.S. companies on New Year’s Eve in Southern California after arresting members of an extremist anti-capitalist and anti-government group.
The four suspects were arrested Friday in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles as they were rehearsing their plot, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference. Officials showed reporters surveillance aerial footage of the suspects moving a large black object in the desert to a table. Officials said they were able to make the arrests before the suspects assembled a functional explosive device.
In the criminal complaint, the four suspects named are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41. They are all from the Los Angeles area, Essayli said.
Officials did not describe a motive but said they are members of an offshoot group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for decolonization, tribal sovereignty and “the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism,” according to the criminal complaint.
Authorities found “Free Palestine” flyers at the desert campsite where the suspects were working with the bomb-making materials.
The charges against each suspect include conspiracy and possession of a destructive device, with additional charges expected in the coming weeks.
Essayli revealed that Carroll last month created a detailed plan to bomb five or more business locations across Southern California on New Year’s Eve, describing the companies involved as “Amazon-type” logistical centers.
The plan included planting backpacks filled with complex pipe bombs that were set to be detonated simultaneously at midnight on New Year’s Eve at five locations. The suspects had also discussed plans targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in future attacks.
Carroll's operational blueprint, dubbed “OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN,” outlined how to avoid leaving evidence behind and included instructions for manufacturing the bombs.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents apprehended the suspects as they practiced their plans in the desert near Twentynine Palms, California, before any operational bomb was completed.
Chief Jim McDonnell of the Los Angeles Police Department emphasized the collaboration among agencies to disrupt such plots despite differing opinions on immigration enforcement. The suspects were scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
