(NewsNation) — The FBI foiled a “credible, imminent terrorist threat” planned for Los Angeles on Dec. 31, agency director Kash Patel said Monday.
Patel said four arrests have been made in connection with the alleged Los Angeles plan.
“They were allegedly planning coordinated IED bombing attacks on New Year’s Eve, targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles,” Patel wrote on X.
Another person was arrested for a separate planned attack in New Orleans, Patel said.
All five individuals in custody have been charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli confirmed Monday.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the arrests prevented “what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California,” which includes Orange and Los Angeles counties.
FBI details alleged Los Angeles NYE bomb plot
The four defendants in the Los Angeles plot planned on placing backpacks with IEDs in them across southern California, said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis.
Davis said the IEDs — which allegedly would have targeted U.S. companies described solely as “logistic centers” — would detonate at the same time: Midnight on New Year’s Eve,
Planning for the alleged terror plots began as late as November, said Essayli, when one member created a “detailed bombing plot” explaining how to build IEDs and listing multiple targets in California.
On Dec. 12, the defendants traveled to a remote campsite in the Mojave Desert, where they began unloading materials to assemble and test bombs.
“They were subsequently arrested by the FBI before they could build a functional explosive device,” Essayli said.
Patel and other FBI officials alleged those arrested belong to a “radical offshoot” of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a group that he described as “motivated by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology.”
FBI officials said an Instagram account from TILF said its aim was to free “Turtle Island,” a name used to refer to North America, from the “illegal American empire.” The contents of that page have not yet been independently confirmed.
Turtle Island is a term for the North American continent, used mostly by American Indigenous peoples and Indigenous rights activists, according to the Urban Native Collective.
The four California detainees will make their first court appearances on Monday afternoon.
Alleged terror group were anti-capitalist, anti-government: Prosecutor
In the aftermath of the agency announcing it foiled the potential attack, Essayli says a source within the group that helped facilitate with the agency to help uncover the plot.
“It took several weeks and months of planning for this group. And their final step was to go out to the desert and to construct and practice making these pipe bombs,” Essayli told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Monday.
Essayli added the group’s intended targets for the attack were “logistic-type centers.”
“Think like Amazon-type warehouses,” he acknowledged. And this particular group is very much anti-capitalist and anti-government. And so they wanted to begin by bombing these logistics centers and then eventually move on to ICE agents and ICE vehicles.”
“They had connections with other individuals throughout the country. We did execute several search warrants over the weekend related to the group and other people they were in communication with.”