This FBI image claims to show four people testing bombs they allegedly intended to detonate at “multiple US companies” on New Year’s Eve, but all four were arrested and taken into federal custody this past weekend.

The FBI and multiple Los Angeles law enforcement agencies held a joint press conference Monday to announce that they’d disrupted a Southern California bomb plot planned for New Year’s Eve, according to PBS. Four suspects were allegedly testing their bombs in San Bernardino County this past Friday, as seen below in FBI surveillance footage, and SFGate reports they were planning to detonate the bombs in at least five different Southern California locations on New Year’s Eve.

"The successful disruption of this plot is a powerful testament to the strength of our unified response," LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said in that press conference. He said his agency, the LA County Sheriff’s Department, and the local FBI branch "prevented a potential tragedy and reaffirmed our shared commitment to safeguarding our communities."

According to the BBC, the “bombing plot involved explosive devices being planted at locations that targeted two US companies described as logistic centres at midnight on New Year's Eve in the Los Angeles area.” The four arrested are accused of building fairly complicated pipe bombs, and in Signal chats had allegedly coordinated the acquisition of PVC pipe, plus items like potassium nitrate and sulfur powder for the bombs. All four were arrested while testing their bombs in the Mojave Desert Friday.

The plot, dubbed "OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN" in an eight-page plan found by federal agents, involved targeting "Amazon-type" logistics centers, and detonating bombs just as fireworks were going off around LA, hoping to disguise the sounds.


The four arrested suspects, all of whom live in Southern California are seen above: Audrey Illeene Carroll (30), Zachary Aaron Page (32), Dante Gaffield (24) and Tina Lai (41). They are purported to be members of an offshoot of a loose-knit organization called the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), and all four have been charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

The group, according to the federal complaint, "calls for decolonization, tribal sovereignty" and for "the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism."


If a domestic terror plot in California was foiled, certainly we can all be thankful. But there is clearly some Trump administration bullshit flying around (like with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s tweet above) that these were “far-left, pro-Palestine” activists. We know little of their politics, and only died-in-the-wool Trump partisans have promoted this as being a “far-left” group.

Either way, all four members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front will make court appearances in the US District Court in downtown Los Angeles.  

Related: Oakland’s Chabot Elementary School Shut Down Tuesday Over Bomb Threat With ‘Racial Undertone’ [SFist]

Image: FBI