Plans for attack in New Orleans thwarted, authorities say

Plans of an attack in New Orleans began to intensify after several hundred immigration agents were deployed to southeast Louisiana, authorities said. The enforcement operation, dubbed “Catahoula Crunch,” has a goal of 5,000 arrests. The crackdown is the latest in a series of enforcement operations that have also unfolded 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 message by Legnon written under the alias “Kateri The Witch" the day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived in New Orleans. Legnon’s alias had “she/her” written beside it, but jail records referred to Legnon as male.

Investigators believe Legnon's chat message referred to the 1993 siege at a Waco, Texas, compound that ended after 51 days and the deaths of four federal agents, a religious leader and 76 of his followers.

Eight days after the post in the group chat, Legnon appeared to place a weapon into a car, an FBI agent surveilling Legnon said in the court document.

“On my way” to New Orleans, Legnon said in a group chat. Legnon then shared a video of a gun and bullet proof vest and wrote “just incase.”

After Legnon's Dec. 12 arrest, agents found an assault rifle, a pistol, a gas canister and body armor inside the car. Inside Legnon's apartment in New Iberia, Louisiana, agents found sniper training manuals, SWAT training manuals, assault rifles, and rounds of ammunition.

Court documents did not list an attorney who could speak on Legnon's behalf. The Office of the State Public Defender and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana did not immediately respond to requests for information on Legnon's attorney, and jail officials said they did not know who might be representing Legnon.

Officials say Legnon “is suspected to be associated with” the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for “liberation through decolonization tribal sovereignty," based on court documents. Federal authorities described the group as “a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government and anti-capitalist group.”

In the California case, a member of the group created a detailed plan to bomb five or more businesses across Southern California on New Year’s Eve. The plot included planting backpacks filled with complex pipe bombs that were set to be detonated simultaneously at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Two of the group’s members also had 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 are eerily similar to this year's deadly attack in New Orleans' famed French Quarter.

In the early hours of Jan. 1, 2025, Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove his truck down Bourbon Street, plowing into New Year’s reveler’s — killing 14 people and injuring dozens more. Prior to the attack, Jabbar, who was later fatally shot by police, had placed multiple bombs in coolers around the French Quarter. None of the explosive devices detonated. Jabbar was inspired by the Islamic State group, authorities said.