Federal officials announced Tuesday that additional terrorism charges were brought against a far-left group accused of planning a terror plot to bomb Southern California locations on New Year’s Eve, a plan officials said was devised by a radical faction of the relatively unknown Turtle Island Liberation Front.
The alleged bombing scheme immediately grabbed national headlines due to the charges of politically motivated violence. The “violent, homegrown, antigovernment group,” according to the FBI, planned to bomb several Southern California businesses. If true, and successful, the plan could have been deadly and undoubtedly would have left residents and the region stunned on the cusp of a new year.
But an FBI sting foiled the plot — four people with ties to the Turtle Island group were arrested as they were starting to construct improvised explosive devices in the Mojave Desert earlier this month, according to officials.
What exactly is the Turtle Island Liberation Front, or TILF? What are its politics? And who are the suspects in this case?
The Times reviewed court documents, social media and public records to glean more information about the group and found that its reach is expanding across the nation — and it has links to prior instances of violence.
The review confirmed that one of the alleged conspirators of the New Year’s bomb plot lost his home in the Eaton fire and had been accused in the past of assault. The group also helped promote a protest against an Israeli defense company earlier this month that ended in at least two arrests outside a Koreatown temple. And there is at least one alleged “comrade” of the foursome, according to court documents, who appears to have been working with the group from well outside Southern California.
“If convicted, this group of self-professed left-wing radicals will face decades in federal prison,” First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a statement Tuesday. “We will continue to investigate and prosecute any and all terror groups and bring them to justice.”
What we know about TILF
A social media page for the Turtle Island Liberation Front describes the group as advocating for “liberation through decolonization and tribal sovereignty,” sharing posts that call for a free Palestine as well as decrying the recent surge of immigration raids. The group’s name is derived from an Indigenous term for North America.
But the group appeared to have a relatively small following and limited online presence.
The Instagram page for the L.A. chapter, which appears to be the founding chapter, has posts dating back only to July and about 900 followers.
But small fringe groups in the U.S. like TILF are increasingly subscribing to violence as an appropriate form of political dispute after becoming inspired by an array of global events, such as the years-long Israeli military assault on Gaza, according to Brian Levin, an expert on extremism who founded the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.
“Groups like … TILF specifically reject peaceful means and embrace revolutionary-inspired liberation violence,” Levin said.
Levin said TILF’s ideology, size and operation reminded him of 1970s fringe groups such as the Weather Underground, which carried out politically motivated violence.
The four L.A. County residents arrested this month in the alleged bomb plot had been tracked for weeks by both a federal undercover agent and a confidential informant who infiltrated the group, according to federal court filings.
The alleged plot also included potential plans to target federal immigration agents and vehicles with pipe bombs, records show.
Federal officials said all four of the alleged co-conspirators were part of a radical offshoot Signal messaging group called the Order of the Black Lotus that was used to plan the terror plot.
In a recent post, TILF promoted a December protest at a Koreatown temple where organizers were expecting speakers from the Israeli defense industry. The Turtle Island post about the protest called the speakers “bloody war criminals,” but it doesn’t appear the TILF group was the main organizer of the protest.
The protest ended in two arrests after the demonstration escalated. Police said protesters blocked temple employees from leaving. The temple’s rabbi also alleged property damage at the site and said he heard antisemitic slurs.
Links to Louisiana
A fifth person was arrested by federal officials in the terror plot investigation — in Louisiana.
Although Essayli initially said that the arrest was not directly tied to the alleged plot in L.A., the criminal complaint for Micah Legnon, a former Marine who lives in southwestern Louisiana, detailed a much more intimate tie between him and the four arrested in Southern California.
According to the document, Legnon was part of the Signal messaging subgroup, the Order of the Black Lotus, in which he used the name “Darkwitch” and the group discussed its plans to make and plant homemade pipe bombs. They also discussed Legnon working with the group on “accuracy and combat shooting,” the complaint said.
The day of the Mojave Desert arrests, federal agents watched Legnon “load what appeared to be assault rifle and body armor” into his vehicle before leaving his residence in New Iberia, La., the complaint said. He told the group in the Signal chat that he was headed for New Orleans, sharing a video of his weapons with the caption: “just in case.”
FBI agents believed Legnon “intended to travel to New Orleans to carry out an attack,” the complaint said.
FBI agents later searched his home, finding “sniper training manuals, SWAT training manuals, assault rifles and multiple rounds of ammunition,” the complaint said.
Legnon was arrested on suspicion of “threats to interstate commerce,” a federal charge that includes transmitting across state lines a threat to injure another person or corporation.
Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles FBI field office, said that “this investigation crossed the entire country,” noting that the Southern California branch of the investigative agency worked with FBI field offices in Buffalo, N.Y.; Indianapolis; Boston and New Orleans.
Who are the alleged co-conspirators?
Along with Legnon, federal officials arrested Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30, of Los Angeles; Zachary Aaron Page, 32, of Torrance; Dante Gaffield, 24, of Los Angeles; and Tina Lai, 41, of Glendale on suspicion of conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to court records. They all faced two new charges from a grand jury this week: providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and possession of unregistered firearms. Carroll and Page are also facing charges of one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
They are all being held without bond. Three of their four attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
John Neil McNicholas, the attorney for Page, said it was too early in the case for him to provide a detailed comment.
“It’s a bunch of people in the desert with a bunch of things that are separately nothing but objects with no power whatsoever,” he said about the alleged plot.
In the Signal messaging app, the defendants all used a slew of nicknames or aliases, prosecutors said.
Carroll, whom federal officials have described as the leader of the Order of the Black Lotus radical faction and owner of the TILF Instagram page, was known as “Asiginaak” and “black moon.”
In court documents, prosecutors shared messages they said Carroll sent to her alleged co-conspirators via the Signal app, including that she was a “Hamas fangirl.”
“I identify as a terrorist,” she wrote, according to the documents.
At one point, Carroll communicated directly with the FBI’s confidential informant, telling them about a notebook where she worked on multiple violent plots, calling it her “terrorist diary,” prosecutors say.
“I have to get rid of that,” she wrote, according to the documents.
Gaffield used the aliases “Nomad” and “Cedar,” authorities said.
He lost his home in the Eaton fire in January and said on a GoFundMe page that his family was left with only ashes. Public records show he lived with his family at a house on East Altadena Drive, and records confirm that the home at that address burned in the blaze.
“The home that held generations of memories, laughter, and love is now gone,” Gaffield wrote on GoFundMe. “Everything we worked so hard for — every photograph, every keepsake, every piece of our lives — has vanished.”
In a hearing about his bail, federal prosecutors described him as a threat, requesting no bail after his arrest, which was eventually granted.
Prosecutors cited a 2020 case in which Gaffield was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with force and obstructing a police officer, according to court records. Prosecutors said that Gaffield assaulted an officer with a chair, but the case was later dismissed, according to a court filing from Gaffield’s attorney.
Federal prosecutors also said that, after his arrest, agents found a Taser device in his home that law enforcement records indicated was stolen from the U.S. Federal Protective Service.
Gaffield also had a domestic violence restraining order issued against him in a case with his ex-girlfriend, prosecutors said.
But in his defense, his attorney argued that Gaffield was “peripheral” to the terror plot case and that his actions were “non-violent and inchoate,” according to court records.
Many of Gaffield’s family members showed up to support his request for bond. Gaffield loves helping others, said one family member. He would pass out food on Skid Row or at MacArthur Park, the relative said.
Page was also known as “AK,” “Ask Kerrigan” or “cthulu’s daughter,” prosecutors said. The defendant is a recently divorced parent who uses the pronouns “she” and “they,” Page’s attorney told The Times.
On Facebook, Page frequently outlined their political views around the time of the 2020 presidential election. They argued against capitalism as a system of economics and argued for a cap on personal wealth to lessen inequality. They also posted, “I stand with Palestine” in 2023.
“I want everyone alive to have free, clean water, food, healthcare, education, shelter/housing, and have more time to pursue passions and hobbies. Is that really so radical??”
Little information could be found online or in court documents about the fourth defendant in the case, Tina Lai. She was also identified by federal officials as Tina Chen-Ting, with an alias of “Kickwhere.” A family member declined to comment when reached by The Times.
The effect of TILF and related groups
At a news conference celebrating the foiled plot, Essayli — a fervent supporter of President Trump — emphasized that these kinds of groups had become a growing focus of federal investigators and prosecutors.
“Recent attacks across the country have highlighted the grave threats posed by these far-left domestic terror groups,” Essayli said. “Both my office and the FBI have invested substantial resources into investigating and charging these organizations.”
The Trump administration has recently promised to step up the prosecution of groups that harbor “extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity,” among other ideologies cited in a memo sent by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to federal law enforcement agencies this month.
Some worry, however, that a one-sided focus is a threat to Americans’ freedom of speech, even if they agree that stepping up enforcement against extremists is important.
“Trump appears to be labeling ideologies as some kind of domestic terrorism element — that’s a concern,” Levin said. “This can represent the kind of justification for a broadly applied attack on dissent and civil liberties.”
Although Levin said the prosecution of the TILF group appeared valid given its violent rhetoric, he said he hoped federal officials would remain judicious.
“This group was one that is different from much of the mainstream left positions,” Levin said. “It’s important to note that.”
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