Members of ‘far-left’ group arrested after planning to carry out series of bombings across California, FBI claims

Political violence is a fundamental part of American (well, violence of any sort really) society.

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• Federal authorities announced the arrests of four people on Monday accused of planning violence in Southern California.
• Officials said the people arrested were behind an “organized, sophisticated and extremely violent” plot.
• The group had planned to bomb several companies on New Year’s Eve, authorities said.

The four people were arrested on suspicion of devising a plot that Essayli called “organized, sophisticated and extremely violent.” They were all tied to what officials described as a radical faction of the Turtle Island Liberation Front called Order of the Black Lotus. FBI Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis called the faction “a violent homegrown anti-government group.”

Officials wouldn’t name the businesses or buildings the group allegedly planned to target, but Essayli said they were various “logistic centers” similar to ones that Amazon might have. He said they were located in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The mission of the Order of the Black Lotus faction wasn’t immediately clear, but a social media page for the Turtle Island Liberation Front describes the group as an anti-capitalist and anti-colonization group, deriving its name from a Native American term used for the Americas.

The criminal complaint says that the group publicly posts “content that advocates for violence against United States officials” and has advocated against peaceful protest, calling on people to “rise up and fight back.”

A fifth person was arrested by federal officials in the terror plot investigation — in Louisiana.

Although Essayli initially said that the arrest was not directly tied to the alleged plot in L.A., the criminal complaint for Micah Legnon, a former Marine who lives in southwestern Louisiana, detailed a much more intimate tie between him and the four arrested in Southern California.

According to the document, Legnon was part of the Signal messaging subgroup, the Order of the Black Lotus, in which he used the name “Darkwitch” and the group discussed its plans to make and plant homemade pipe bombs. They also discussed Legnon working with the group on “accuracy and combat shooting,” the complaint said.

The day of the Mojave Desert arrests, federal agents watched Legnon “load what appeared to be assault rifle and body armor” into his vehicle before leaving his residence in New Iberia, La., the complaint said. He told the group in the Signal chat that he was headed for New Orleans, sharing a video of his weapons with the caption: “just in case.”

FBI agents believed Legnon “intended to travel to New Orleans to carry out an attack,” the complaint said.

"A federal grand jury on in the Central District of California on Tuesday returned a six-count indictment against four far-left extremists accused of plotting coordinated bombing attacks in Southern California on New Year’s Eve." Four Far-Left Extremists Indicted On Terrorism Charges In Connection With Planned New Year’s Eve Attack