The FBI arrested a person in Clarendon Hills as part of a weekend blitz by agents in three states that resulted in at least two other arrests; and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one of the raids was a Christian militia group.
Agents from Chicago and Indianapolis executed a search warrant Saturday evening at a home in the 1900 block of Calumet Avenue in Hammond as part of a criminal investigation in Detroit, according to the FBI.
Authorities said a person associated with the Hammond address was found and arrested Sunday morning in southwest suburban Clarendon Hills'.
George Ponce, 18, who works at a pizzeria next door to the raided Hammond home, said he and a few co-workers stepped outside for a break 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 estimated that agents took more than two dozen guns from the house.
FBI spokesman Scott Wilson in Cleveland said agents arrested two people Saturday after raids in two towns in Ohio. But the agency would not say whether activity in two southwest Michigan counties near the Ohio state line was tied to the raids in the other states.
Michael Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, said one of his team leaders got a frantic phone call Saturday evening from members of Hutaree, a Christian militia group, who said their property in southwest Michigan was being raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"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 on Sunday, Lackomar said.
He said his organization was not affiliated with Hutaree, which states on its Web site to be "prepared to defend all those who belong to Christ and save those who aren't."
"We believe that one day, as prophecy says, there will be an Anti-Christ.
"All Christians must know this and prepare, just as Christ commanded," the group's Web site said. "Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment."
Sandra Berchtold, the FBI spokeswoman in Michigan, said she could neither confirm nor deny whether the raids were connected to Hutaree.
Law enforcement swarmed a rural, wooded property Saturday evening near Adrian, about 70 miles southwest of Detroit, neighbors said. Two ramshackle trailers sat side-by-side on the property, the door to one slightly ajar late Sunday as if it had been forced open.
Phyllis Brugger, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, said some people who lived there were known as having ties to militia. They would shoot guns and often wore camouflage, according to Brugger and her daughter, Heidi Wood.
"Everybody knew they were militia," Brugger said. "You don't mess with them."
