Turtle Island Liberation Entrance: Unpacking the Southern California Terror Plot

4 individuals arrested final week who’re suspected of planning coordinated bomb assaults throughout Southern California are a part of anti-capitalist and anti-government group known as the “Turtle Island Liberation Entrance,” federal officers stated Monday.

The group’s Instagram web page, which has 939 followers, options pictures with the phrases “Dying to America” and “Peaceable Protest Will By no means Be Sufficient.”

A video on the posted on the Instagram account includes a girl, who solely identifies as “Mary,” explaining the group’s title.

“So that is what the natives known as it – was Turtle Island,” the particular person, whose face is hid, says within the video. “So that is the de-colonized title of the Americas. And Turtle Island Liberation Entrance is searching for reparations and land again for these indigenous teams.”

The FBI stated Monday, brokers arrested Audrey Carroll, Zachary Web page, Dante Gaffield and Tina Lai final week in Lucerne Valley when the suspects gathered within the desert to construct pipe bombs.

Retired LAPD Counter-Terrorism Officer Mike Downing stated the risk from plots like these are actual.

“I nonetheless assume you could have extremes on each ends that current hazard to this nation,” Downing stated. “And you can not take the attention off the ball. And in case you are solely specializing in one a part of the spectrum, you will be blind to the opposite — and shocked by what occurs.”

Officers launched pictures from a search of Carroll’s dwelling on Monday, which confirmed posters and supplies related to TILF together with one studying “DEATH TO ICE” and one other studying “DEATH TO AMERICA, LONG LIVE TURTLE ISLAND & PALESTINE.” The anti-ICE poster was additionally posted to the group’s Instagram account, which investigators say Carroll managed.

In response to the felony grievance, Carroll allegedly instructed an FBI informant that she has a, “pocket book the place I wrote down a number of plans that by no means occurred … so it is like my terrorist diary.”

Downing stated bomb plots like this one are arduous to infiltrate and intercept.

“There are sources and strategies to get into these teams, nevertheless it takes a very long time,” he defined.

Within the felony grievance, Carrol stated she had a contact who might assist them receive unregistered weapons. She additionally claimed that one member of the Turtle Island Liberation Entrance is a former army service member who may have the ability to get them weapon elements.