LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities said Monday that they foiled a plot to bomb multiple U.S. companies on New Year’s Eve in Southern California, announcing the arrests of members of an extremist anti-capitalist and anti-government group.
The four suspects were arrested Friday as they were testing explosives in the desert east of Los Angeles, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference.
Officials showed reporters surveillance
aerial footage of the four suspects moving a large black object in the desert to a table shortly before their arrests.
In the criminal complaint, the four suspects named are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41. They are all from the Los Angeles area, Essayli said.
Officials did not describe a motive but said they are members of an offshoot of a pro-Palestinian group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front. Each faces charges including conspiracy and possession of a destructive device, court documents show.
It wasn’t immediately clear if they had attorneys and The Associated Press was unable to reach family members.
Essayli said Carroll last month created a detailed plan to bomb five or more locations across Southern California on New Year’s Eve and were trying to hit multiple companies. He declined to name the companies but described them as “Amazon-type” logistical centers.
“Carroll’s bomb plot was explicit,” Essayli said. “It included step-by-step instructions to build IEDs... and listed multiple targets across Orange County and Los Angeles."
Two of the group’s members also had discussed plans for future attacks including targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles with pipe bombs in 2026, according to the criminal complaint.
“Carroll stated that some of those plans would quote ‘take some of them out and scare the rest,’” Essayli said.
The plans were discussed both at an in-person meeting with members in Los Angeles and through an encrypted messaging app, Essayli said.
Evidence photos included in the court documents show a desert campsite with what investigators said were bomb-making materials strewn across plastic folding tables.
The suspects “all brought bomb-making components to the campsite, including various sizes of PVC pipes, suspected potassium nitrate, charcoal, charcoal powder, sulfur powder, and material to be used as fuses, among others,” the complaint states.
Last week they were putting their plan to the test in the desert before federal authorities moved in, Essayli said.
“They had everything they needed to make an operational bomb at that location,” he said.
The four were scheduled to appear in court in Los Angeles Monday afternoon, Essayli said.
_____
Watson reported from San Diego.
