A leftist group called the Turtle Island Liberation Front was planning to set off pipe bombs in southern California on New Year’s Eve. Fortunately, the plot was broken up by the FBI. Pam Bondi posted a tweet this morning.
After an intense investigation, the Department of Justice, working with our @FBI, prevented what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California (Orange County and Los Angeles).
The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left,…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 15, 2025
After an intense investigation, the Department of Justice, working with our @FBI, prevented what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California (Orange County and Los Angeles).
The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group—was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve. The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.
This was an incredible effort by our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the @FBI to ensure Americans can live in peace. We will continue to pursue these terror groups and bring them to justice.
FBI Director Kash Patel also posted a statement about the case on X.
Over the weekend, the @FBI disrupted a credible, imminent terrorist threat and arrested FOUR individuals connected to the Los Angeles area.
The subjects self-identified as members of a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), an extremist group motivated by… pic.twitter.com/81NfM1Mvwi
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) December 15, 2025
The subjects self-identified as members of a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), 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.
In the days since, @FBINewOrleans arrested an additional FIFTH individual believed to be linked to this radical TILF subgroup – also allegedly planning a separate violent attack.
A press conference was held this morning led by US Attorney Bill Essayli who described in more detail the plot and named the people arrested. These individuals were members of a subset of TILF which identified themselves as the “Order of the Black Lotus.”
The four people arrested – Audrey Ilene Carroll, Dante Garfield, Zachary Aaron Page, and Tina Lai – were identified as members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which according to the Justice Department and FBI, has an anti-government ideology.
A federal court complaint alleges that three members would plant “backpacks with ieds at different points along their assigned buildings,” adding that the “ieds” would be “complex pipe bombs.”…
The members planning to carry out the attack were using the encrypted messaging platform, Signal, the FBI alleges in the complaint. Carroll, the document says, “provided a list that identified components, chemicals, and tools along with prices which would be required to create the pipe bombs needed to go through with the planned attack.”
The Signal group chat was titled “Order of the Black Lotus,” according to the Justice Department.
This plot had gone beyond the talking stage. Members of the group were gathering materials and met up in the desert with the plan to build and test a pipe bomb to ensure their New Year’s Eve plan would work.
Officials played a video that they said showed defendants gathering in the desert to test the bombs. The footage was taken by a surveillance plane, according to Essayli, and FBI agents arrested the defendants soon after…
An Instagram account for the group’s Los Angeles chapter says it advocates for “liberation through decolonization and tribal sovereignty.” The group does not appear to be particularly well-known: its Instagram account had fewer than 900 followers as of Monday morning, and its Facebook page was followed by just 32 users.
A still from the video:
FBI LA field office presser now on alleged New Years Eve bombing plot targeting 5 specific locations in the LA area.
The bureau released video of 4 ppl in the alleged domestic terror group, Turtle Island Liberation Front, planning/rehearsing plans in San Bernardino County pic.twitter.com/DsI3RSjxLi
— Joe Khalil (@JoeKhalilTV) December 15, 2025
The criminal complaint doesn’t appear to mention the two companies the group was targeting with their pipe bombs, but I noticed that their Instagram page includes a recent protest against Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense company.
The complaint also notes that, the plotters had plans for additional attacks if this one went as planned:
PAGE and CARROLL discussed plans for futureattacks after the New Year’s Eve bombings, namely, plans tocommence targeting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement(“ICE”) agents and vehicles with pipe bombs beginning in Januaryor February 2026, with CARROLL noting “that would take some of them out and scare the rest of them.”
So they were daydreaming about murdering ICE agents. Fortunately, they were caught before it got that far. Here’s the full press conference about the plot.
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