Federal law enforcement arrested four people who they say are part of an extremist group suspected of planning attacks on New Year’s Eve in Southern California. On X, Attorney General Pam Bondi called the group, the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a “far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist” organization.
Bondi said the group planned a series of bombings in the Los Angeles area and intended to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
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Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, called the group a domestic terrorist organization. He said the four alleged members were charged with conspiracy and possession of a destructive device. More charges could come as the FBI and Justice Department continue to investigate.
Those charged were Audrey “Asiginaak” Carroll, Zachary “AK” Page, Dante “Nomad” Gaffield and Tina “Kickwhere” Lai. Carroll’s nickname is Ojibwe for blackbird, according to the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary.
“The charges we are announcing today stem from the defendants and their co-conspirators’ detailed coordinated plot to bomb multiple U.S. companies on New Year’s Eve,” Essyli said at a Monday press conference. “Thankfully, that plot has now been foiled.”
The group suspected of planning the attacks did not immediately respond to Straight Arrow News’ request for comment.
Social media alarmed, skeptical of plot
On social media, users are split about the announcement. Some mocked the name of the group, others falsely claimed the group is associated with Islam, and others expressed skepticism about the arrests.
“I’m finding it increasingly hard to report anything delivered by ‘official sources’ in the US,” author Mark Chadbourn wrote on BlueSky. “Could be true, could be a coverup, could be completely made up for nefarious ends. It’s a country now where no one really has any idea what’s actually going on.”
FBI Director Kash Patel — who’s facing criticism for publicizing details about a person detained but later released in connection to a mass shooting over the weekend at Brown University — wrote on X that a fifth person associated with Turtle Island Liberation Front was arrested in the FBI’s New Orleans coverage area. He said that person had planned a similar attack, but he disclosed no additional information.
“The subjects self-identified as members of a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), an extremist group motivated by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology,” Patel wrote.
Details of group’s plan of attack
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“Turtle Island” is a name Indigenous people use to refer to North America, which is said to have grown on a turtle’s back.
According to court papers, the FBI used a confidential human source to procure information from Carroll about the planned attack. She allegedly gave the source an eight-page document titled “Operation Midnight Sun” detailing the bombings.
The quartet chose New Year’s Eve as they could hide the sounds of the bombs with fireworks as the clock struck midnight. Authorities alleged that Page and Carroll planned to bomb ICE agents and their vehicles in January or February.
The criminal complaint said Carroll and Page intended to plant improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in backpacks across California that were to detonate simultaneously.
“The handwritten plan stated the ‘ieds’ would be ‘complex pipe bombs,’ included instructions on how to manufacture the bombs, and included guidance to avoid leaving evidence behind that could be traced back to the co-conspirators,” according to the criminal complaint.
The two later allegedly recruited Lai and Gaffield, then started acquiring bomb-making materials for a test detonation in the Mojave Desert last Friday. The group assembled the devices on a table away from their vehicles, authorities said.
FBI agents arrested the four before the devices were fully assembled. The agents said they also seized containers of explosive materials, charcoal, PVC pipes, gasoline, bottles and other materials to create the devices and Molotov cocktails.
Liberation, tribal sovereignty
The group’s name, Turtle Island, derives from a phrase Indigenous people use to refer to North America. According to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, the name comes from the creation of the Earth being developed on a turtle’s back with the help of other animals and later forming what’s known as North America.
The four charged were part of a so-called “radical” contingent of Turtle Island Liberation Front, according to court documents. Federal officials accused Carroll of using the group’s Instagram account to advocate for violence against federal officials.
“Specifically, according to the FBI’s review of publicly-available information from the TILF Instagram account, content on the account references that TILF calls for liberation of their lands and people, and decolonization and tribal sovereignty,” according to court records.
No information was available on what more officials meant by that. The group has posts on its Instagram account that connect the creation of Turtle Island to Palestine, fundraisers and donation drives and posts about the federal boarding schools that forced Native Americans in the U.S. and Canada to assimilate into Western culture through abuse.
Only two of 44 posts mention violence. One features a photo of a protester holding a sign that reads “Death to ICE!!!” The other reads, “Death to America,” with the caption, “Death to america means death to corruption and a system of violence.”
Liberation is not an uncommon movement for Indigenous people, as it accounts for a long fight for tribal sovereignty and justice. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, it ballooned after the start of the American Indian Movement when a group of at least 200 Natives — led by activists George Mitchell, Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt — grew frustrated over discrimination and a centuries-long federal policy designed to shrink the Native American population.
