Plans for attack in New Orleans thwarted, authorities say
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Plans to “carry out an attack” in New Orleans were thwarted after a former Marine was arrested while heading to the Louisiana city with guns and body armor in the car, according to court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
Micah James Legnon, 28, was charged with threats in interstate commerce. Federal authorities said they were monitoring Legnon because of his ties to an anti-capitalist, anti-government extremist group. Four members of the group were arrested Friday in the Mojave Desert, east of Los Angeles, as they rehearsed a foiled plot to detonate bombs in Southern California on New Year’s Eve, authorities said.
Plans to attack New Orleans began to intensify after several hundred immigration agents were deployed to southeast Louisiana, authorities said. The repression operation, called “Catahoula Crunch”, aims to make 5,000 arrests. The crackdown is the latest in a series of crackdowns that have also taken place in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Legnon believed it was time to “recreate” Waco with an attack in New Orleans, authorities said in court documents. They pointed to a Dec. 4 chat post from Legnon written under the pseudonym “Kateri the Witch,” the day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived in New Orleans. Legnon’s pseudonym had “she/her” written next to it, but prison records referred to Legnon as a man.
Investigators believe Legnon’s message was in reference to the 1993 siege at a Waco, Texas, compound that ended after 51 days and left four federal agents, a religious leader and 76 of his supporters dead.
Eight days after the post in the group chat, Legnon appeared to place a gun in a car, an FBI agent monitoring Legnon said in the court document.
“On my way” to New Orleans, Legnon said during a group discussion. Legnon then shared a video of a gun and body armor and wrote “just in case.”
After Legnon’s arrest on Dec. 12, officers found an assault rifle, a pistol, a gas canister and a bulletproof vest inside the car. In Legnon’s apartment in New Iberia, Louisiana, agents found sniper training manuals, SWAT training manuals, assault rifles and cartridges.
Court documents do not list an attorney who could speak on Legnon’s behalf. The state public defender’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana did not immediately respond to requests for information about Legnon’s attorney, and prison officials said they did not know who might represent Legnon.
Officials say Legnon “is suspected of being associated” with the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for “liberation through decolonization of tribal sovereignty,” based on court documents. Federal authorities described the group as “a far-left, pro-Palestinian, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group.”
In the California case, one member of the group developed a detailed plan to bomb five or more businesses in Southern California on New Year’s Eve. The plot involved planting backpacks filled with complex pipe bombs that were to detonate simultaneously at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Two of the group’s members had also discussed plans to attack ICE agents and vehicles with pipe bombs in 2026, according to the criminal complaint.
Some details of the foiled plot in California bear a striking resemblance to this year’s deadly attack in New Orleans’ notorious French Quarter.
In the early hours of January 1, 2025, Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove his truck down Bourbon Street, heading toward New Year’s revelers, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more. Before the attack, Jabbar, who was later fatally shot by police, had placed several bombs in coolers around the French Quarter. No explosive devices were detonated. Jabbar took inspiration from the Islamic State group, authorities said.
