First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli, right, speaks during a press conference announcing developments on a terrorism investigation in Los Angeles on Monday, December 15, 2025. DAMIAN DOVARGANES / AP
Federal authorities said Monday, December 15, that they foiled a plot to bomb multiple sites of two US companies on New Year's Eve in Southern California after arresting members of an extremist anti-capitalist and anti-government group.
The four suspects were arrested Friday in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles as they were rehearsing their plot, First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference. Officials showed reporters surveillance aerial footage of the suspects moving a large black object in the desert to a table. Officials said they were able to make the arrests before the suspects assembled a functional explosive device.
In the criminal complaint, the four suspects named are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41. They are all from the Los Angeles area, Essayli said.
Officials did not describe a motive but said they are members of an offshoot of a pro-Palestinian group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for "the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism," according to the criminal complaint.
