WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel announced Monday that five members of a pro-Palestinian extremist group had been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to carry out coordinated bombings in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.
The “credible, imminent terrorist threat” to five locations in Los Angeles came from radical members of an offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), Patel claimed in an X post.
Four of the suspects were collared in Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert, where the extremists allegedly were testing improvised explosives. A fifth was apprehended in New Orleans while planning a separate attack, according to the FBI boss.
Charges have yet to be announced. The arrests were first reported by Fox News.
The TILF’s Los Angeles chapter has posted photos on its Instagram of its members waving Palestinian flags and brandishing a “Death to ICE!!!” sign.
“Turtle Island” is an indigenous term for the continent of North America that has been appropriated by Black Lives Matter and other left-wing activist groups.
TILF Los Angeles has called the US government an “illegal American empire” and demanded a “Free Palestine,” “Free Hawaii” and “Free Puerto Rico” in other Instagram posts.
“Freeing the world from American imperialism is the only way to a safe and peaceful future,” the group has declared.
“After an intense investigation, the Department of Justice, working with our @FBI, prevented what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California (Orange County and Los Angeles),” Attorney General Pam Bondi also posted Monday on X.
“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 said. “The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.”
“This was an incredible effort by our US Attorneys’ Offices and the @FBI to ensure Americans can live in peace. We will continue to pursue these terror groups and bring them to justice,” she added.
