NEW IBERIA — A former New Iberia police officer allegedly affiliated with four people accused of plotting a New Year's Eve bomb attack in southern California had two weapons on him when he was arrested during the weekend and likely was heading to New Orleans to carry out an attack, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed Tuesday.

Federal court documents say Micah Legnon, 29, was associated with members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which is accused of plotting to detonate improvised explosives at five locations across southern California.

Legnon, 29, is also a former Marine. An FBI agent said in its affidavit that Legnon was arrested after loading what appeared to be an assault rifle and body armor into his vehicle on Friday. The FBI believed he was headed to New Orleans to carry out an attack; agents detained him on U.S. 90 eastbound from New Iberia. 

The arrest occurred in the Lydia neighborhood just south of New Iberia. Residents told the WBRZ Investigative Unit on Monday that drones were used in surveillance of the neighborhood in the past week, ahead of the arrest.

A special agent of the FBI said TILF is an anti-government movement that supports "liberation through decolonization and tribal sovereignty." Four people were arrested in California on Friday while gathering to test explosives, the FBI said.

Legnon, who went by the nicknames "Kateri the Witch" and "Dark Witch," is accused of one count of threatening interstate commerce. The agent's affidavit includes screen shots of social media posts critical of recent Border Patrol activity in the New Orleans area and makes a reference to the April 19, 1993, raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Texas.

"... time to recreate Waco tx with these f*****s," according to a post Legnon shared on Facebook, the agent wrote.

"Given the nature of Legnon's post and the historical context related to the events that transpired in Waco, Texas, it is a reasonable inference to draw that Legnon, when making the post "... time to recreate Waco tx with these f*****s ..." intended to convey a threat through interstate communications," the agent wrote.

Agents found sniper training materials, SWAT training manuals, assault rifles and multiple rounds of ammunition while searching Legnon's residence, the FBI said. In his vehicle on Saturday, Legnon had one assault rifle, a pistol, one gas canister and body armor, the agency said.

"It is your affiant's belief that Legnon intended to travel to New Orleans to carry out an attack by means of weapons shown in the picture involved," the agent wrote below a photograph of weapons and ammo.

While Legnon was interacting with the California group, it appeared his actions were Louisiana-centered. He was not named among those accused in the plot to bomb several locations in southern California at midnight on New Year's Eve, when fireworks would mix in with the sounds of the explosions. 

The California plot was similar to an attack carried out last Jan. 1 in New Orleans, in which a lone person placed bombs in the French Quarter. Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, later drove around a police barricade and hit revelers on Bourbon Street, killing 14.

Near Los Angeles, Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Dante Gaffield, 24; Tina Lai, 41; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41; were arrested while testing explosives in the desert. Their plot involved five locations involving two companies, and they were to have inscribed graffiti inside red triangles near the explosion sites, the FBI said.