Police, Federal Agents in (Militia) Raids in Sandusky, Huron By SARAH WEBER
Sunday, March 28, 2010
SANDUSKY and HURON
A battalion of local officers and federal agents flooded the Bayshore Estates neighborhood Saturday afternoon.
A second raid was conducted in Huron. An FBI agent at the scene of the Bayshore Estates raid said a second, related raid was taking place at “another location.” Huron police confirmed late Saturday a raid had taken place in that city, but would say nothing more.
Likewise, FBI agents at the scene and at the Cleveland field office are staying mum on the cause of the commotion.
“We did make some arrests,” said special agent Scott Wilson of the FBI’s Cleveland office.
He said the warrants were sealed in federal court and he could not release any information until after the suspects appear in court Monday.
Sandusky Police, Erie County Sheriff’s deputies, agents from Toledo Police Bomb Squad and Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s K9 Unit assisted at the scene.
Capt. Paul Sigsworth of the Erie County Sheriff’s office said he could not talk about the investigation.
Agents at Bayshore Estates yelled at residents to stay back at least a block from where they conducted the arrest on East Cedarwood Drive. Agents placed a handcuffed white male wearing a black shirt into a silver car.
Some officers in green uniforms carried large automatic rifles.
“We’re definitely in the dark,” said Terry Mills, who manages the trailer park with his wife, Barb.
A resident who asked her name not be used said she was reading in her living room when she heard sounds “like a semi” and a police radio, and looked outside to see two agents in FBI jackets crouching behind her car and more armed officers in her lawn.
She said an armored vehicle at the scene was one she’d seen earlier in the day on West Perkins Avenue.
The quiet east side neighborhood has seen its share of disturbances this year. It’s been the site of three total-loss trailer fires, one of which killed veteran John C. O’Reilly, 66, on New Year’s Day.
“It’s getting to be too much now,” Mills said.
He said he didn’t know who was arrested or why.
