Federal authorities announced on Monday the disruption of a detailed bomb plot targeting multiple locations across Southern California on New Year's Eve, leading to the arrest of four alleged members of a far-left extremist group.
According to the federal criminal complaint, the alleged plot, titled "Operation Midnight Sun," was an eight-page handwritten plan created by defendant Audrey Illeene Carroll and presented to a confidential source in November. The plan called for the simultaneous detonation of improvised explosive devices at five separate locations in the Los Angeles area at midnight on December 31, 2025. The targets included two U.S. companies described as logistics centers. In addition to the New Year's Eve attack, the group allegedly discussed a follow-up plan to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and their vehicles with pipe bombs in January or February 2026.
The four defendants charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41. Authorities identified them as members of an offshoot of the "Turtle Island Liberation Front". First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli described the individuals as "radical anti-government" members of the group. Attorney General Pam Bondi characterized the Turtle Island Liberation Front as a "far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group".
The plot was disrupted on December 12, 2025, when FBI agents arrested the four defendants at a remote campsite in the Lucerne Valley area of the Mojave Desert. The group had allegedly traveled there to construct and test their explosive devices. Evidence photos from the scene showed bomb-making materials laid out on tables, including PVC pipes, potassium nitrate, charcoal, sulfur powder, and fusing materials. FBI agents intervened before the group could assemble a functional explosive device. A fifth individual, described as a member of the same group but not connected to the California plot, was arrested by the FBI in New Orleans.
The complaint states the defendants used the encrypted messaging app Signal to communicate in a group chat titled "Order of the Black Lotus," which one member described as "radical". The plan included detailed instructions for building pipe bombs and methods to avoid leaving evidence, such as using burner phones and setting up alibis. This case follows a recent memo from Attorney General Bondi ordering law enforcement to ramp up investigations into extremist groups with leftist-leaning agendas.