By Michael Gryboski, Editor
Federal authorities have arrested alleged suspects in a far-left domestic terror group that was planning to detonate a series of explosive devices on New Year’s Eve.
At a press conference Monday, authorities announced that they had arrested four members of the group Turtle Island Liberation Front last Friday, foiling a bomb plot set for Dec. 31.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California to apprehend the individuals who were planning to target multiple companies.
Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Western District of Louisiana and for the District of Massachusetts also helped in the investigation, as warrants were issued across the nation.
The four individuals who allegedly planned to carry out the New Year’s Eve attacks were identified as Audrey Carroll, 30; Zachary Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41.
“Turtle Island” is used by some indigenous groups and radical activists as a name for North America due to “America” being derived from Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
According to U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California, defendant Carroll had formed a faction of the group known as the Order of the Black Lotus, to which the other three defendants belonged.
“The charges we are announcing today stem from the defendants and their co-conspirators’ detailed, coordinated plot to bomb multiple U.S. companies on New Year’s Eve. Thankfully, that plot has now been foiled thanks to the hard work of the FBI and the Department of Justice,” stated Essayli.
Essayli noted that the group self-identifies as “an anti-capitalist, anti-government movement that calls for their associates to rise up and fight back against capitalism.”
According to Essayli, in November, Carroll created an “explicit” plan to bomb at least five locations across southern California, with the intention of enacting “follow-up attacks” on agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The individuals allegedly traveled to the desert to test their explosive devices, having possessed all the necessary parts to build a bomb. At that point, authorities arrested members of the group.
Searches of the suspects’ residences in the Los Angeles area turned up posters declaring “Death to America,” “Long Live Turtle Island and Palestine” and “Death to ICE,” Essayli added.
“This case is another reminder about the dangers that radicalized Antifa-like groups pose to people, public safety and the rule of law,” he continued. “We disrupted this terror plot before buildings were demolished or innocent people were killed. But this is not the end of our work.”
In September, President Donald Trump issued an executive order officially designating Antifa, the violent, far-left activist group, a “domestic terrorist organization.”
“All relevant executive departments and agencies shall utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa,” stated the executive order.
The order was part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to combat left-wing extremist violence following the assassination of conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk.
Critics of these efforts by the administration have argued that they ignore violence from right-wing extremist groups, which is purportedly more common than far-left terrorism.
“And really, it’s not close,” said Michael Jensen, research director at the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism consortium at the University of Maryland, to The Washington Post.
“It’s something like 5-to-1 in terms of the number of attacks and deaths that can be attributed to far-right actors as opposed to far-left actors,” he said.
Other reports, however, have found that left-wing terrorism is on the rise, while right-wing acts of violence have declined, according to a recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that analyzed over 30 years of data.