“Four suspects have been arrested on charges of planning attacks using improvised explosive devices targeting five locations in the city of Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on December 15.
Patel stated that the suspects were members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), which he described as a “left-wing extremist group with anti-government ideology.” According to an indictment filed in a federal court overseeing California, the four suspects are Audrey Carroll, Zachary Page, Dante Gaffield, and Tina Lai, aged between 24 and 41. In November, Carroll and Page reportedly handed over handwritten documents outlining a bombing plan to an individual who was acting as a law enforcement informant.
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The two suspects later recruited Gaffield and Lai into the plot and created a group chat on the Signal messaging app to coordinate their plans. The group transported materials to a remote area in the Mojave Desert, where they assembled and tested an improvised explosive device on December 12, before being arrested on the spot by FBI agents.
In addition to the New Year’s Eve bombing plot, the four suspects allegedly planned to use explosives to target agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ICE vehicles.
The suspects appeared in court on December 15 and are facing multiple charges, including illegal possession of destructive devices. Bill Essayli, head of the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors may file additional charges after completing a review of the evidence.