Operation Midnight Sun: How FBI foiled a new year’s eve bombing plot in Los Angeles | Explained

An FBI Evidence Response Team searches the grounds around the site of the Brown University shooting, as the manhunt continues for the gunman, in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., December 15, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

As the year draws to a close, a series of violent incidents and terror scares have cast a shadow over the holiday season. After the recent shooting at Brown University in the United States and the deadly terror attack at Bondi Beach in Australia, federal authorities in the US have now foiled a New Year’s Eve bombing plot in Los Angeles.

Officials said the plot was being planned by the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a fringe far-left, anti-government group that claims to support the Palestinian cause. Four alleged members of the group have been arrested for planning bomb attacks on US targets in and around Los Angeles.

The Turtle Island Liberation Front, or TILF, is a little-known extremist group that has largely operated under the radar. According to a report by the New York Post, the group has been raising funds and collecting resources to push what it describes as a “revolutionary change in government”.

TILF maintains an active presence on social media. Its Instagram page, which has over 900 followers, carries violent slogans and imagery, including phrases such as “Death to America”, “Peaceful Protest Will Never Be Enough”, and “Death to ICE!!!”.

An FBI affidavit described the group’s ideology in stark terms. It said TILF calls for “the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism”. The document added, “Moreover, TILF advocates that liberalism and peaceful protest will be the downfall of those who believe it is enough, and that ‘direct action is the only way.’”

The group’s name comes from “Turtle Island”, an Indigenous term for North America used by communities such as the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee. The term is rooted in the belief that the continent rests on the back of a giant turtle.

Federal authorities arrested four suspects last week as they travelled to a desert area outside Los Angeles carrying what officials described as bomb-making materials. The accused were identified as Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30, Zachary Aaron Page, 32, Dante Gaffield, 24, and Tina Lai, 41.

Officials said the group was transporting “precursor chemicals” and was heading to the desert to assemble explosive devices. Their movements were tracked using a surveillance aircraft, and footage of the operation was later shown to the media during a press conference on Monday, December 15.

Court documents include photographs of the campsite, showing plastic folding tables covered with materials investigators say were intended for bomb making. According to the criminal complaint, 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.”

Before the group could build a functional bomb, FBI agents and the Los Angeles FBI SWAT team moved in and arrested all four suspects.

The criminal complaint said the group planned to target two companies at five locations across Los Angeles, describing the firms as “engaged in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters that the suspects also planned attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and vehicles. According to the complaint, Carroll and Page discussed carrying out attacks after New Year’s Eve, including using pipe bombs against immigration agents. Carroll allegedly said, “That would take some of them out and scare the rest of them.”

Officials said the plans were discussed both in person and through an encrypted messaging app. Bill Essayli, first assistant US attorney, told the press that these conversations involved multiple group members.

In another alarming detail cited by ABC, Carroll allegedly told an FBI informant that she “has a notebook where I wrote down multiple plans that never happened, so it’s like my terrorist diary.”

Authorities also released photographs from a search of Carroll’s home. The images showed materials linked to TILF, including signs reading “DEATH TO ICE” and “DEATH TO AMERICA, LONG LIVE TURTLE ISLAND & PALESTINE.”

The FBI and the US Justice Department said the foiled plot was named “OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN”. FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrests on X, writing, “Over the weekend, the FBI disrupted a credible, imminent terrorist threat and arrested FOUR individuals connected to the Los Angeles area.”

All four suspects have been charged with conspiracy and possession of a destructive device. Officials said more charges are expected. The accused remain in custody and appeared before a court in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon.