LOS ANGELES—An admitted member of an extremist group pleaded guilty Oct. 29 to a federal charge of helping plan bombing attacks on New Year’s Eve 2025 across Southern California—a plot that was derailed by authorities weeks earlier.

Dante Gaffield, 25, of South Los Angeles, entered a plea in downtown Los Angeles to a single count of providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, a charge carrying a possible sentence of up to 15 years behind bars and a life term of supervised release.

Sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 15, 2027.

Gaffield was among four defendants charged in December with suspected roles in the alleged plot.

Audrey Carroll, 31, of South Los Angeles, and Zachary Page, 33, of Torrance, were charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and possession of unregistered firearms. A third defendant, Tina Lai, 42, of Glendale, was charged with the last two counts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office contends the four were part of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a group described as advocating and planning violence against U.S. businesses and persons working for the federal government.

They were also members of what Carroll characterized as a “radical” TILF faction that communicated using an encrypted messaging group called Order of the Black Lotus, federal prosecutors allege.

When Gaffield was first introduced to TILF in the summer of 2025, he believed the group was an advocacy group that held anti-government, anti-capitalist and pro-Palestinian ideology, his plea agreement says.

Over time, however, Gaffield said he learned that alleged core TILF members Carroll and Page were planning violent attacks.

In October 2025, for example, Gaffield says he met with Carroll, Page and a co-conspirator at a park near Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. During the meeting, Carroll made clear that she believed peaceful protests were ineffective and advocated for the use of violence to counter what she claimed was violence by the government, prosecutors contend.

“Among other things, Carroll told the group that she had experience building Molotov cocktails, which she stated the group could use to fight back against law enforcement, specifically, officers working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” according to Gaffield’s plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court.

The suspects were arrested Dec. 12 in the Mojave Desert as they unloaded bomb-making materials from their cars in preparation to construct and test explosives that were to be used in coordinated attacks on targets throughout the region, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said.

In November 2025, Carroll allegedly drafted an eight-page, handwritten document that described a bombing plot targeting U.S. businesses across Southern California on New Year’s Eve, the following month.

Essayli did not name the companies being targeted, but described them as “Amazon-type” logistical centers.

Federal prosecutors contend Page used an encrypted messaging application to send a message to co-conspirators, including Carroll and Gaffield, proclaiming “death” to Israel, the U.S. and “colonizers.” Carroll responded, “Death to them all, burn it all down,” court papers allege.

Throughout early December, the defendants procured bomb-making materials to build and test explosive devices in the Mojave Desert, including by obtaining materials such as potassium nitrate, sulfur, charcoal and pipes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

By then, the group had been infiltrated by undercover law enforcement, according to Gaffield’s plea agreement.

Prosecutors said the plot included planting backpacks filled with explosive devices at multiple businesses that were set to blow up simultaneously prior to midnight on Dec. 31 of last year.

The group also allegedly planned to target ICE agents and vehicles with pipe bombs in the ensuing months, Essayli said.

The suspects were arrested in the desert near Twentynine Palms before they were able to finish building an actual destructive device, authorities said. The complaint includes photos showing a campsite with what prosecutors say were bomb-making materials spread across folding tables.

“The charges ... reflect the seriousness of the conduct: a planned terrorist attack on American soil on New Year’s Eve,” Essayli said in a statement. “If convicted, this group of self-professed left-wing radicals will face decades in federal prison. We will continue to investigate and prosecute any and all terror groups and bring them to justice.”

A May 2027 trial date has been set for Carroll, Page, and Lai.