FBI foils New Year’s Eve bomb plot by ‘far left’ group in Los Angeles

FBI director Kash Patel describes the 'extremist' group as motivated by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government beliefs.

The FBI said the suspects were members of a ‘radical offshoot’ of a group known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front. (AFP pic)

LOS ANGELES:

 Four people have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot by a “far-left” anti-government group to stage bomb attacks on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles, officials said Monday.

The suspects were members of a “radical offshoot” of a group known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), FBI director Kash Patel said on X.

Patel described the TILF as “an extremist group motivated by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology.”

“They were allegedly planning coordinated IED bombing attacks on New Year’s Eve, targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles,” he said.

The FBI director said bureau agents in New Orleans had arrested a fifth person linked to the TILF who was allegedly planning a “separate violent attack.”

Attorney general Pam Bondi said the arrests “prevented what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot” in Orange County and Los Angeles.

In addition to the threat of multiple bombings in California, the group also allegedly planned to target agents and vehicles used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, Bondi said on X.

The four individuals arrested in connection with the alleged Los Angeles plot were identified in a criminal complaint as Audrey Carroll, Zachary Page, Dante Gaffield, and Tina Lai.

They face charges of conspiracy and possession of a destructive device.

According to the complaint, Carroll and Page provided a handwritten document outlining a bombing plot called “Operation Midnight Sun” to a person who turned out to be a law enforcement informant.

The plan was to plant backpacks containing homemade “complex pipe bombs” at five locations targeting two unidentified US companies, the complaint said.

The conspirators “took numerous steps toward executing the bombing plot,” it said, including travelling to the Mojave Desert last week to test explosive devices.

“FBI agents intervened and arrested Carroll, Page, Gaffield, and Lai before they completed assembling a functional explosive device,” it added.

A TILF social media page describes the group as being “dedicated to liberation through decolonization and tribal sovereignty.”

According to the criminal complaint, “TILF also calls for the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism.” - FMT