Politics

The Justice Department announced on Monday that four individuals were arrested in the Los Angeles area for allegedly planning a bomb attack on New Year's Eve. The suspects, identified as Audrey Ilene Carroll, Dante Garfield, Zachary Aaron Page, and Tina Lai, are said to be affiliated with the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a group characterized by an anti-government stance, according to the Justice Department and the FBI. A federal court document claims that three of the suspects intended to place "backpacks with IEDs at various points along their designated buildings," specifying that these IEDs would be "complex pipe bombs." The plan included detailed security measures for the execution of their scheme, such as using burner phones, choosing secluded locations, and streaming long movies at home to create an alibi, the DOJ reported. The documents also purportedly contained a step-by-step guide on how to make a pipe bomb. "The individuals identified themselves as part of a radical faction of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), an extremist group driven by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government beliefs. They allegedly aimed to carry out coordinated IED bombing attacks on New Year's Eve, targeting five different sites across Los Angeles," stated FBI Director Kash Patel on X. The suspects reportedly communicated about the attack through the encrypted messaging app Signal. According to the documents, Carroll "provided a list of components, chemicals, and tools, along with their prices, needed to build the pipe bombs for the planned attack." The Signal group chat was named "Order of the Black Lotus," as noted by the Justice Department. On December 12, the group is alleged to have traveled to the Mojave Desert to assemble and test the explosive devices.