4 Members of 'Extremist' Group Arrested in Los Angeles New Year's Eve Bombing Plot, FBI Says By Charna Flam

Four people who were allegedly connected with plotting multiple terrorist attacks in Southern California have been arrested, the FBI announced on Monday, Dec. 15.

Tina Lai, 41, Zachary Aaron Page, 32, Audrey Carroll, 30, and Dante Gaffield, 24, were identified as suspects and charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.

Hours before the four suspects were identified, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the FBI “disrupted a credible, imminent terrorist threat,” in which the group was “allegedly planning coordinated IED [improvised explosive device] bombing attacks on New Year’s Eve, targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles.”

The four people “self-identified” as members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF). Patel described the organization as an “extremist group motivated by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology,” per the news release.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi said that the “group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.”

Patel said a fifth person, who is also believed to be linked to TILF, was arrested by the FBI in New Orleans for allegedly “planning a separate violent attack,” according to USA Today.

In November 2025, Carroll, one of the TILF members, allegedly provided to co-conspirators an eight-page handwritten document detailing a bombing plot, titled “Operation Midnight Sun,” according to an affidavit, per the news release.

She acknowledged that their plan would be “considered a terrorist act.” 

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“The plan called for backpacks with bombs to be simultaneously detonated at five or more locations targeting two U.S. companies at midnight this New Year’s Eve in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area,” per the news release.

The plan said that the improvised explosive devices would be “complex pipe bombs.” It also had instructions on how to manufacture the bombs, and allegedly included information on how to not leave behind evidence.

The government alleges that Carroll and fellow TILF member Page recruited Gaffield and Lai, and that the newly recruited alleged co-conspirators worked to acquire bomb-making materials. The release also alleges that the suspects traveled to a remote location in the Mojave Desert to construct and detonate test bombs on Friday, Dec. 12. 

During their time in the desert, the group allegedly began to construct the devices, which included “unloading the bomb-making materials from their cars and beginning to assemble the materials on a table,” according to the release. The group also allegedly assembled a tent, “to keep the bomb materials shaded from the sun.”

“Carroll discussed grinding a precursor for use in an explosive powder,” per the news release, and the suspects “wiped down the interior of one of the pipes used for the bombs.”

According to Patel, agents arrested the defendants before they completed assembling a functional bomb.

If the defendants are convicted, they could face a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.

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The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating this matter. FBI field offices in Boston, Buffalo, and New Orleans are also assisting.

PEOPLE has reached out to the FBI for comment on the arrests.