DOJ arrests 4 people for allegedly planning to place bombs around L.A. on New Year's Eve

By Chloe Atkins, Andrew Blankstein, Tom Winter and Megan Lebowitz

The Justice Department arrested four people in connection with an alleged plot to set off bombs in the Los Angeles area on New Year's Eve, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X.

Bondi said that members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which she described as a "far-left" group, had planned to conduct "a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve."

The group had acquired “bomb-making materials and [traveled] to a remote location in the Mojave Desert to construct and detonate test explosive devices on December 12, 2025,” according to a criminal complaint.

FBI agents arrested the individuals “before they completed assembling a functional explosive device,” the filing said.

Both an FBI informant and an undercover FBI employee were involved in the operation.

The filing alleged that a suspect provided a confidential source with a "handwritten document titled 'OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN' that described a bombing plot."

The filing named the person who allegedly provided the document that laid out the plan as Audrey Illeene Carroll. Carroll was arrested along with Zachary Aaron Page, Dante Gaffield and Tina Lai.

"Specifically, the plan contemplated planting backpacks with 'ieds,' or Improvised Explosive Devices, to be simultaneously detonated at five locations targeting two U.S. companies at midnight on New Year’s Eve 2025 in the Central District of California," the filing said.

The targeted companies "are used or engaged in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce," the filing said, citing the document provided to the law enforcement source.

NBC News has reached out to the Los Angeles chapter of the Turtle Island Liberation Front for comment.

According to the filing, Carroll told Lai that there would not beany people at the target locations.

Carroll “noted that if they saw any people, such as a security guard at any of the locations, they would warn them,” a footnote said.

Authorities said that Carroll messaged the law enforcement source this month that “I kind of had this notebook where I wrote down multiple plans that never happened or got delayed.”

“so it’s like / my terrorist diary / lmaooooo / I have to get rid of that,” Carroll wrote, according to the filing.

The Justice Department under Trump has placed a focus on cracking down on alleged threats from left-wing groups. Earlier this year, Trump announced that his administration would designate antifa as a "major terrorist organization." Antifa is decentralized, and his declaration faced criticism as not holding legal significance.