Federal agents arrested five members of an extremist, pro-Palestinian group who were plotting to carry out coordinated bombing attacks in Los Angeles and New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, FBI director Kash Patel said on Monday.

“They had everything they needed to make an operational bomb,” Bill Essayli, assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said at a press conference on Monday. “We disrupted this terror plot before buildings were demolished or innocent people were killed.”

Essayli added that the defendants aimed to detonate “complex pipe bombs” at “multiple companies” at the same time. They also sought to conduct the attacks without leaving a trace, he said.

The Justice Department named the defendants, all from the Los Angeles area, as Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41. All were also part of a group called the Order of the Black Lotus. At the home of one of the defendants was a sign stating “long live Palestine,” Essayli said.

Patel, the FBI director, stated that “the subjects self-identified as members of a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, an extremist group motivated by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement and anti-government ideology.”

“They were allegedly planning coordinated IED bombing attacks on New Year’s Eve, targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles,” Patel stated. “In the days since, the FBI in New Orleans arrested an additional fifth individual believed to be linked to this radical Turtle Island Liberation Front subgroup, also allegedly planning a separate violent attack.”

Patel described the New Year’s Eve terrorist threat as “credible” and “imminent.”

According to the Justice Department, Carroll gave the other three co-conspirators an “eight-page handwritten document titled ‘Operation Midnight Sun’” in November 2025. “The plan called for backpacks with bombs to be simultaneously detonated at five or more locations targeting two U.S. companies at midnight this New Year’s Eve in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area,” the department stated.

The four “took numerous steps toward executing the bombing plot, including acquiring bomb-making materials and traveling to a remote location in the Mojave Desert to construct and detonate test bombs on Dec. 12,” the department said.

In the desert, they “took steps to begin construction of the devices, including unloading the bomb-making materials from their cars and beginning to assemble the materials on a table,” per the Justice Department. “They also constructed a tent to keep the bomb materials shaded from the sun, wiped down the interior of one of the pipes used for the bombs and Carroll discussed grinding a precursor for use in an explosive powder.”

At that point, FBI agents arrested them “before they completed assembling a functional bomb,” it said.

It added that each defendant faces up to 15 years in jail.

Joey Good, senior director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Orange County, told JNS that the thwarted bombing “comes as Jews are being targeted again and again—from Redlands, Calif., to Sydney.”

“These incidents are not isolated. They are part of a clear and accelerating surge in antisemitism,” he said. “We are grateful to law enforcement for preventing further harm and remain focused on protecting our community and ensuring Jewish life can continue openly and without fear.”

Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS that the attempted bombings are “yet another example of how sowing incitement can reap violent outcomes.”

“That this group mixed its pro-Palestinian persona with an anti-U.S. agenda shows how deeply connected both narratives are right here in our own country,” he said, and “how fortunate we are that the FBI interdicted this plot.”

There is still a question “how much more of this kind of activity is out there, feeding off the freewheeling hatred which spews untrammeled on social and mainstream media, in academia and in street demonstrations in cities across the country, he told JNS.

‘Our light will never be defeated’

Nicole Guzik, senior rabbi at Sinai Temple, a Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles, told JNS that “living with fear is intrinsically part of the Jewish story.”

However, the rabbi said, “letting hatred of Jews dictate our worship and rituals will never narrate how we choose to observe or celebrate. On Chanukah, we engage in pirsumei nisa, publicizing the miracle of defeating antisemitism thousands of years ago. Then, others tried to diminish our light. Today, they try again.”

Jews worldwide mourn “as one people,” whether in Sydney, Brown University in Rhode Island, New Orleans or in Los Angeles, Guzik said. They also “proclaim with great conviction, our light will never be defeated by the darkness of evil.”

Sherri Tarr, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, told JNS that “we are deeply troubled by reports of the recent arrest of an individual in Louisiana with ties to the terrorist group behind a thwarted bomb plot.”

“At a time when students sitting for exams and families preparing for the holidays must weigh the threat of violence, our unwavering commitment to the safety and security of the Jewish community remains our highest priority,” Tarr said.

“Here in Greater New Orleans, we are in close coordination with law enforcement and security partners to ensure that, in addition to the police and security measures already in place, there will be enhanced and robust protections at all Chanukah events and beyond,” she said.

Tarr added that “our community will never retreat in the face of hatred.”

“We will continue to celebrate our traditions proudly and work tirelessly to ensure that our lights shine even brighter in the darkness,” she said.

‘Twist in the wind’

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, noted that over the next few years, Los Angeles is slated to host the Olympics, Super Bowl and World Cup, which makes the city “a juicier target for terrorists,” he told JNS.

He said that the Los Angeles Police Department is “understaffed and underfunded” and is “the main and, sometimes only, lifeline to the Jewish community” in the area.

“The LAPD folks understand what a synagogue means to us,” Cooper said. “They have a basic grasp of why Jews go Friday night or Shabbat to temple or to synagogue, and we in the Jewish community have a profound respect for the LAPD because if they weren’t around, we’d be experiencing even worse right now.”

The police, according to Cooper, are “a line of defense less concerned about virtue-signaling politicians than keeping all Angelenos safe.”

“It starts with the Jews. It never ends with the Jews,” he said. “Take a look at how Christmas in Europe has been changed pretty much forever because of the terrorism threat.”

Outdoor Christmas markets in “scenic cities” across Europe have “been either changed, moved indoors, sometimes canceled,” and such celebrations have been targeted with “truck rammings and car rammings and all the rest of it,” Cooper told JNS.

“One would hope the announcement today, of the thwarting of this particular plot for New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles, will be absorbed by the politicians in London, in Paris, in Canberra, in New Zealand,” he said.

“Thank God, the FBI and all the other agencies did their job,” he said.

The bomb threat and the antisemitic terror attack in Sydney show that Jews are the “first victims” in the “worldwide war,” he said. “We’re never the last victims.”

“My sense was and still remains that the decision-makers in Australia just don’t get it,” he said. “They think you can deal by maybe saying some kind words here and there. Essentially, they’ve allowed the Jewish minority to twist in the wind, and they’ve done so for domestic political reasons.”

Australia joining French President Emmanuel Macron and others to endorse a Palestinian state in September “was taken by the evildoers to say, ‘We can continue to push the envelope’” and as “being rewarded,” he said.

Cooper said his daughter, who is visiting Los Angeles from Jerusalem, went to an outdoor Israeli music concert on Sunday evening that was “packed.”

“We need to signal everyone. They’re not going to push us into a corner,” he said. “They’re not going to shrink the footprint of a proud people by dangerous bullies. We’ll do our share and we’ll stand up for others as well, but we need the political decision makers to empower those who are trained to deal with dangerous bullies and terrorists to do their job.”

‘Bring them to justice’

The four California-based members of the group were arrested in Lucerne Valley, Calif., over the weekend, Fox News reported. Each has reportedly been charged with conspiracy and possession of a destructive device.

The New Orleans-based member of the group was arrested for allegedly plotting a separate attack.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on Monday that the group was plotting a “massive and horrific terror plot” in Orange County and Los Angeles.

“The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government and anti-capitalist group—was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve,” Bondi wrote. “The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.”

“We will continue to pursue these terror groups and bring them to justice,” she added.