Through an informant, at least one undercover agent, and online and physical surveillance the FBI tracked the group before intervening in what it calls a conspiracy.
The plan Carroll shared with the informant, according to the complaint, was for several people to plant improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, at five locations and detonate them at the same time on New Year’s Eve, damaging unnamed U.S. companies’ property in southern California.
sounds to me like simple civil disobedience.