Four arrested in alleged New Year’s Eve bomb plot targeting Los Angeles sites

Federal authorities arrested four members of a left-wing, pro-Palestinian extremist group over the weekend, accusing them of planning a coordinated bombing campaign across Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.

According to an FBI affidavit, the suspects are affiliated with the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), which authorities describe as a far-left, anti-government, and anti-capitalist organization. Investigators allege the group intended to attack “property and facilities operated by two separate companies that are used or engaged in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce.”

The arrests took place in Lucerne Valley, in the Mojave Desert, where the suspects were allegedly testing explosive devices. Federal agents intervened before the group completed the assembly of a functional bomb.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that the group “was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve” and also planned to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and vehicles.

Those charged are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41. All four face federal charges of conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Court documents state that Carroll authored an eight-page operational plan and provided it to a confidential source in late November. The document described a plan to place backpacks containing explosives at five locations, to be detonated simultaneously at midnight on New Year’s Eve 2025. The alleged plot was referred to by investigators as “Operation Midnight Sun.”

Authorities say the group intended to expand its actions in early 2026, with plans to target ICE facilities and personnel in January or February. During the arrests, agents recovered bomb-making materials along with protest signs bearing slogans such as “Death to ICE,” and “Death to America, long live Turtle Island & Palestine.”

TILF describes its mission as seeking “full decolonization and land back for all occupied and oppressed peoples in the world,” according to its website. Law enforcement officials allege that Carroll operates the Los Angeles chapter’s Instagram account, which regularly posts radical pro-Palestinian content, calls for revolt against capitalism, and denounces Israeli technology and defense companies.

While authorities have not publicly identified the two companies targeted in the alleged bombing plot, TILF’s Los Angeles chapter has repeatedly criticized Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense firm, on social media. Earlier this month, the group encouraged protests against what it called “the bloody war criminals” and “genocidal monsters,” claiming the company was planning to install artificial intelligence technology in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles.

“We cannot allow this,” the group wrote in one post. “These genocidal war criminals have no place in our city, and no place in Palestine. Never let them live in peace.”

Investigators noted that one of the signs recovered during the arrests appeared to match signage used during a November protest targeting ICE.

Recent social media posts from TILF LA also rejected nonviolent activism, asserting that “peaceful protest will never be enough,” and declaring that “the only way out is through resistance,” urging supporters to “fight back.”

The four defendants are expected to remain in federal custody as the case proceeds. Authorities emphasized that the arrests prevented a potentially deadly attack and said the investigation remains ongoing.