Two New Year's Eve Terror Plots Foiled by Federal Authorities in NC and CA

North Carolina Terror Plot Foiled

• 🎯 An 18-year-old named Christian Sturdivant was arrested for planning a New Year's Eve attack on a grocery store and Burger King in Mint Hill, North Carolina.
• 🗓️ Sturdivant allegedly spent a year online reading ISIS-related material and created TikToks about the terror group.
• 🔪 He planned to wear a Kevlar vest and attack people with knives and hammers, hoping to die at the hands of police.
• 🕵️ The FBI was alerted to Sturdivant in 2022 when he communicated with an overseas ISIS member instructing him to kill his neighbor; he was referred for psychological treatment at the time.
• ⚠️ Sturdivant was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization after sharing his plans with an undercover FBI employee.

Southern California Bombing Plot Thwarted

• 💣 Federal investigators also foiled a plot to bomb technology and logistics companies in Los Angeles and Orange Counties on New Year's Eve.
• ⚖️ One of the four alleged perpetrators, 41-year-old Tina Lie, pleaded not guilty to attempting to provide material support to terrorists.
• ✊ Lie is believed to be part of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, an anti-capitalist and anti-government group.
• 🏜️ Authorities tracked the group to the Mojave Desert in early December, where they allegedly planned to build and test complex pipe bombs.

Analysis of Modern Terror Threats

• 🔍 Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, notes that the current threat matrix involves smaller outfits and splinter groups carrying out "do-it-yourself" plots.