Watch the video above: Federal and local authorities discuss the thwarted New Year’s Eve terrorist attack in Southern California.

(KTLA) — An extensive investigation, involving several agencies, successfully foiled a terrorist plot targeting various locations in Southern California, federal officials revealed on Monday.

The United States Attorney General, Pam Bondi, highlighted the significance of the investigation led by the Department of Justice and the FBI, which she said “prevented what could have been a massive and horrific plot in the Central District of California.” This district encompasses Orange County and Los Angeles, along with the counties of Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Bondi disclosed that the group implicated in the alleged terror plot is known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front. She characterized them as “far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist.”

The group was reportedly orchestrating a “series of bombings” aimed at multiple targets across California, timed to coincide with New Year’s Eve celebrations. Their plans allegedly also included attacks on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and their vehicles.

“This was an incredible effort by our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the FBI to ensure Americans can live in peace,” the attorney general said. “We will continue to pursue these terror groups and bring them to justice.” 

FBI Director Kash Patel provided further details on the arrests, explaining that the FBI “disrupted a credible, imminent threat” with the arrests of four people in the Los Angeles area. A fifth person was arrested by the FBI’s New Orleans Office, Patel added.

“The subjects identified as members of a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, an extremist group motivated by pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology,” Patel said Monday morning. “They were allegedly planning coordinated IED bombing attacks on New Year’s Eve, targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles.”

The fifth individual arrested by the FBI New Orleans office is believed to be linked to the radical subgroup and was allegedly planning a separate attack, Patel further explained.

“Outstanding work by our investigators and law enforcement partners with the Justice Department,” the FBI director concluded. “Their work undoubtedly saved countless lives.”

At a press conference Monday morning, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli identified the four Los Angeles-area arrestees as:

• Audrey Carroll, 30
• Zachary Aaron Page, 32
• Dante Gaffield, 24
• Tina Lai, 41

The four are charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Carroll is alleged to have organized the more radical offshoot of the Turtle Island group, a sect known as the “Order of the Black Lotus.”

She is also alleged to have created a “detailed bombing plot” to attack five or more locations this upcoming New Year’s Eve, Essayli said. She and co-defendant Page “led the effort to build the bombs and recruit others to join their plot.”

Providing more details on the arrests, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office Akil Davis said the four were arrested near Twentynine Palms on Friday “while they planned and rehearsed their attack.”

“The subjects arrested envisioned planting backpacks with improvised explosive devices to be detonated at multiple locations in Southern California targeting U.S. companies,” Davis continued. “These bombs were to blow up at the same time at midnight this New Year’s Eve.”

Video was shown at the press conference that depicted the group going to the desert on Dec. 12 and testing their explosive devices.

“They had precursor chemicals there, and they were going to create these bombs in the desert,” Davis explained. “What they were starting to do is [assemble] their chemicals and wares and components.”

The footage was captured by a surveillance plane, Davis added, and shortly after, the four were arrested without incident by the Los Angeles-based SWAT Team and the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team.

Officials did not disclose the names of the companies that were allegedly being targeted by the group; however, U.S. Attorney Essayli said there were at least five “Amazon-type logistics centers” in Orange County and Los Angeles County.

“They were willing and wanting to do more if they could recruit more members to their radical efforts,” he told reporters.

The five people arrested are believed to be the specific individuals behind the New Year’s Eve plot, Essayli added, but more search warrants were carried out, and evidence is still being reviewed.

“As we review that evidence, if we determine there were any other individuals who knew about this or provided any assistance, we will obviously charge them as well,” Essayli said.

Essayli elaborated that the person arrested in New Orleans was “not directly tied” to the New Year’s Eve plot; however, he “posed a great threat” to agents serving a search warrant and thus he was taken into custody.

The investigation and arrests were part of the FBI’s “Operation Verdant Force.”