Four people face criminal charges in connection with what Attorney General Pam Bondi described on Monday as a foiled bomb plot that targeted multiple targets, including U.S. immigration agents and their vehicles, Reuters reported.
The four people are charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
"The Turtle Island Liberation Front - a far-left, pro-Palestinian, anti-government and anti-capitalist group - was preparing to carry out a series of bombings against multiple targets in California, starting on New Year's Eve. The group also planned to attack ICE agents and vehicles," Bondi said in a statement.
The complaint says the bomb plot called for placing explosive devices at five locations targeting two U.S. companies at midnight on New Year's Eve in the Los Angeles area.
The case comes shortly after Bondi issued a memo to law enforcement and prosecutors ordering them to step up investigations into "extremist" left-wing groups.
The four defendants named in the complaint are Audrey Eileen Carroll, 30, Zachary Aaron Page, 32, Dante Garfield, 24, and Tina Lai, 41.
According to an affidavit in support of the complaint, in November Carroll provided a paid confidential source with an eight-page handwritten document titled "Operation Midnight Sun" that described a bombing plot.
The affidavit alleges that Carroll and Page later recruited the other two defendants to help carry out the plan, which involved "acquiring bomb-making materials and traveling to a remote location in the Mojave Desert to construct and detonate test explosive devices on Dec. 12. 2025".
FBI agents intervened before they could finish assembling a functional explosive device.
"Turtle Island Liberation Front - Los Angeles Branch" is described on its social media page as dedicated to "Liberation through Decolonization and Tribal Sovereignty", according to the complaint, which alleges the group is an "anti-capitalist, anti-government movement".
The complaint says the four defendants were part of a Signal group chat called "The Order of the Black Lotus", which one of them described as "radical".
The complaint says that in addition to planning to plant bombs on New Year's Eve, the group also discussed going after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and vehicles with pipe bombs in January or February, with Carroll saying, "That would take some of them out and scare the rest."