The FBI said on Sunday that agents conducted weekend raids in three states and arrested at least three people, and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one raid was a Christian militia group.
The raids took place in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, the FBI said.
Federal warrants were sealed, but a federal law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said some of those arrested face gun charges and officials are pursuing other suspects. Some of the suspects were expected in court yesterday.
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold confirmed the FBI had been working in two southeast Michigan counties near the Ohio state line.
FBI spokesman Scott Wilson in Ohio said agents arrested two people on Saturday after raids in two Ohio towns.
A third arrest made in northeast Illinois on Sunday stemmed from a raid on Saturday just over the border in northwest Indiana, both part of an ongoing investigation led by the FBI in Michigan, according to a statement from agents in Illinois.
It wasn’t clear what prompted the raids, but Michael Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, said one of his team leaders got a frantic phone call on Saturday evening from members of Hutaree, a Christian militia group. They said their property in southwest Michigan was being raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Lackomar said.
“They said they were under attack by the ATF and wanted a place to hide,” Lackomar said. “My team leader said, ‘no thanks.’”
The team leader was cooperating with the FBI, Lackomar said. He said the SMVM wasn’t affiliated with Hutaree, but a handful of Hutaree members twice attended monthly training sessions with his group that focus on survival training and shooting practice.
On its Web site, Hutaree quotes several Bible passages and states: “We believe that one day, as prophecy says, there will be an Anti-Christ ... Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment.”
An e-mail sent to the group by reporters wasn’t returned on Sunday, and telephone numbers for the group’s leadership were not immediately available. Berchtold, the FBI spokeswoman in Michigan, wouldn’t say whether the raids were connected to Hutaree.
Law enforcement swarmed a rural, wooded property on Saturday evening near Adrian, about 110km southwest of Detroit, neighbors said. Two ramshackle trailers sat side-by-side on the property, the door to one slightly ajar late on Sunday as if it had been forced open.
George Ponce, 18, who works at a pizzeria next door to a home raided in Hammond, Indiana, said he and a few coworkers stepped outside for a break on Saturday night and saw a swarm of law enforcement.
“I heard a yell, ‘Get back inside!’ and saw a squad member pointing a rifle at us,” Ponce said. “They told us the bomb squad was going in, sweeping the house looking for bombs.”
He said another agent was in the bushes near the house, and law enforcement vehicles were “all over.” He estimated that agents took more than two dozen guns from the house.
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