What's known about group behind alleged L.A. bomb plot

Details of the Turtle Island Liberation Front emerge in public records, social media.

- GRACE TOOHEY AND NOAH GOLDBERG

THE FBI'S Akil Davis, from right, speaks as LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell and Sheriff Robert Luna look on.

Federal officials announced Tuesday that additional terrorism charges were brought against a far-left group accused of planning a terror plot to bomb Southern California locations on New Year's Eve, a plan officials said was devised by a radical faction of the relatively unknown Turtle Island Liberation Front.

The alleged bombing scheme immediately grabbed national headlines because of the charges of politically motivated violence. The “violent, homegrown, antigovernment group,” according to the FBI, planned to bomb several Southern California businesses. If true, and successful, the plan could have been deadly and undoubtedly would have left residents and the region stunned on the cusp of a new year.

But an FBI sting foiled the plot — four people with ties to the Turtle Island group were arrested as they were starting to construct improvised explosive devices in the Mojave Desert earlier this month, according to officials.

What exactly is the Turtle Island Liberation Front, or TILF? What are its politics? And who are the suspects in this case?

The Times reviewed court documents, social media and public records to glean more information about the group and found that its reach is expanding across the nation — and it has links to previous instances of violence.

The review confirmed that one of the alleged conspirators of the New Year’s bomb plot lost his home in the Eaton fire and had been accused in the past of assault. The group also helped promote a protest against an Israeli defense company earlier this month that ended in at least two arrests outside a Koreatown temple. And there is at least one alleged “comrade” of the foursome, according to court documents, who appears to have been working with the group from well outside Southern California.