Federal authorities arrested four people in California who are accused of plotting coordinated New Year’s Eve bomb attacks on multiple business locations across Southern California and discussing future attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles. Prosecutors allege the suspects are linked to a far‑left, pro‑Palestinian, anti‑government group described in court papers as an offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front.
Federal investigators say they disrupted a New Year’s Eve bombing plot involving individuals affiliated with a far‑left group associated with the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which officials describe as anti‑government, anti‑capitalist and pro‑Palestinian.
According to a federal criminal complaint and statements from the Justice Department and FBI reported by outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters and National Review, four suspects — Audrey Illeene Carroll, Zachary Aaron Page, Dante Gaffield and Tina Lai — were arrested on December 12 in Lucerne Valley, a desert area in California’s Mojave Desert. Prosecutors say they were at a remote campsite east of Los Angeles where they had gathered bomb‑making components and were preparing to test improvised explosive devices ahead of planned attacks.
Court documents cited by multiple outlets say Carroll provided an eight‑page handwritten document titled “Operation Midnight Sun” to a confidential law‑enforcement source in late November. The document allegedly outlined a plan to place backpacks containing pipe‑bomb‑style improvised explosive devices at five locations linked to two U.S. companies in the Los Angeles and Orange County area, with the bombs to be detonated simultaneously at midnight on New Year’s Eve so the blasts would be masked by fireworks.
The affidavit, as described in news reports, states that the instructions included step‑by‑step guidance on constructing the devices using chemical precursors, PVC pipes and fuses, and advised participants on how to avoid leaving evidence or attracting attention. Investigators say the four suspects had already obtained bomb‑making materials when they traveled to the desert site, where evidence photos in the complaint allegedly show PVC pipes, suspected potassium nitrate, charcoal, sulfur powder and fuse material spread across folding tables.
According to the complaint and summaries reported by Reuters, National Review and other outlets, the plotters communicated via an encrypted Signal chat titled “Order of the Black Lotus,” described as an offshoot or cell associated with the Turtle Island Liberation Front. Prosecutors say the group espouses anti‑capitalist and decolonization themes and calls for a working‑class uprising against the U.S. government. Authorities also allege that the suspects used burner phones and other tactics to avoid identification.
In addition to the New Year’s Eve bombings, two members of the group — identified in the affidavit as Page and Carroll — allegedly discussed plans for future attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and vehicles, with those attacks envisioned for January or February 2026, according to National Review’s account of the filing. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, quoted by several outlets, that “the group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles,” and that coordinated searches recovered signs and posters bearing messages such as “Death to ICE” and **“Death to America, long live Turtle Island & Palestine.”
Bondi publicly praised the investigation, saying on social media that the Department of Justice and the FBI had prevented what she described as a potentially devastating terror plot in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles and Orange County. She credited close coordination among U.S. Attorney’s Offices and federal agents with ensuring the suspects were arrested before they completed assembling a functional explosive device, according to National Review’s summary of the affidavit.
The term “Turtle Island” is widely used in Indigenous communities and activist circles as an alternate name for North America. In this case, federal authorities say the suspects adopted the "Turtle Island Liberation Front" label for an extremist grouping that combined pro‑Palestinian rhetoric with calls for decolonization and violent resistance. According to media accounts of the complaint, investigators executing search warrants found posters and propaganda at Carroll’s residence referencing Turtle Island and Palestine, including slogans calling for the return of land to Indigenous peoples and hostile messages aimed at ICE and the United States. Details about any specific Instagram or social‑media account allegedly linked to Carroll, including a masked speaker identified as “Mary” and particular explanations tying “Turtle Island” to Palestine, were not described in the publicly reported complaint and could not be independently verified from available news coverage.
Each of the four defendants has been charged in federal court with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to the Associated Press, Reuters and other outlets. Prosecutors have said they expect to pursue additional charges as the investigation continues. The defendants were scheduled to make initial appearances in federal court in Los Angeles.
Since the announcement of the case on December 15, 2025, commentators and online researchers have noted that there appear to be no public references to an organized group called the Turtle Island Liberation Front before this investigation became public, raising questions about whether the label reflects a longstanding organization or a recently adopted name used primarily by the suspects and in law‑enforcement filings. Federal authorities, however, continue to describe the defendants as members or associates of an extremist faction using that name.
While the Department of Homeland Security has previously reported increases in threats and assaults against ICE personnel in recent years, the specific claim that death threats have risen by 8,000% and assaults by more than 1,100% under the Trump administration’s immigration policies could not be confirmed in publicly available DHS reports or contemporaneous news coverage and has therefore been omitted here.
