Federal agents search West Seattle home, ‘multiple locations’

FIRST REPORT, 8:08 AM: Thanks to everyone who texted and e-mailed to report federal agents searching a hillside home between High Point and Camp Long early this morning. At the scene, we saw FBI agents with unmarked vehicles, and a vehicle marked as belonging to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They wouldn’t comment, referring us to local FBI headquarters; we just talked with Ayn Sandalo Dietrich in FBI public affairs, and she could only tell us that it’s part of an operation at “multiple locations,” but they’ll have more to say later. We also checked with Seattle Police, where Det. Mark Jamieson said the same thing.

10:35 AM UPDATE: The FBI has announced a multi-agency media briefing at 1 pm today – we’ll be there. They’re describing what happened this morning as a “Seattle Safe Streets Task Force operation.” The task force is described on this page as working “to identify, disrupt, and dismantle existing and emerging violent criminal enterprises and gangs in King County, as well as other individuals and groups whose criminal activity negatively impacts the Puget Sound area.”

NOTE: Our story on the briefing – and what we’ve found out about the suspect arrested in West Seattle – is here.

Marie August 28, 2012 (8:34 am)

Thanks for the follow up.

JJ August 28, 2012 (8:44 am)

Helicopter over Camp Long area now

WSB August 28, 2012 (8:45 am)

I’d guess TV, since WSB is closely monitored. Let me know if you see otherwise.

LesleyB August 28, 2012 (8:46 am)

It’s a Kiro helicopter. Does anyone know if something is happening in the neighborhood right now?

WSB August 28, 2012 (9:23 am)

No, nothing is happening, quiet morning so far aside from this. We went back to this scene a little while ago to see if the agents were still there – they were not. But we’re planning on checking again in an hour or so. Usually these kinds of things are executed in the early morning. Nobody else has been reporting on it around the city yet to my knowledge, which leads me to surmise it was a speculative chopper trip looking to see if anything was visible from the air. Soon as the promised info is out, we’ll update – no time frame, I would guess afternoon – TR

JJ August 28, 2012 (8:48 am)

It is Kiro 7

kayo August 28, 2012 (8:49 am)

Looked like kiro to me. We are on the back side of the golf course and this house looks like it is on the hill up to Highpoint from Brandon based on the pics. Thanks for keeping us posted.

camp long neighbor August 28, 2012 (9:12 am)

It was Kiro 7 chopper

P. Coltraine August 28, 2012 (9:18 am)

Yeah, all the real action was about 5:45 this morning, when I was sat bolt upright in bed by hearing “Search Warrant!” being yelled repeatedly down the street and then hearing a battering ram go through the front door. There were FBI SWAT agents (combat gear, though with no identifying labeling, I asked one later what agency they were with) that had arrived in 2 unmarked SUV’s and a Hummer parked around the corner.

Katy August 28, 2012 (9:46 am)

Kiro had an update, but nothing more than mentioned above:
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/federal-agents-searching-west-seattle-home/nRL3J/

Katy August 28, 2012 (11:34 am)

Do you know if the briefing can be viewed live online?

WSB August 28, 2012 (11:39 am)

The FBI doesn’t do live streams. I don’t think this is of magnitude that a TV station would livestream – that requires an extra level of logistics – but you can check around. I will be live-chronicling it in a new story here on WSB unless there’s a wi-fi problem (we carry our own and it usually works but there are some places with challenges – like the Seattle Police HQ basement) … haven’t been to FBI HQ in a VERY long time so have no idea how it does with the signal – if the main signal doesn’t work, we’ll at least tweet highlights ( http://twitter.com/westseattleblog ) – TR

Jeff August 28, 2012 (11:52 am)

FBI HQ doesn’t handle outside signals well. The main room on the ground floor regularly cuts out cell phone signals.

WSB August 28, 2012 (12:02 pm)

Update: Our friends at KING 5 say via FB that they will be streaming this live. So check out http://king5.com at 1 – if possible we will embed their stream here on WSB too.

Katy August 28, 2012 (12:09 pm)

THANKS!

Winston Smith August 28, 2012 (12:12 pm)

Sounds like a fun time bashing in doors! It is certainly great when the feds show up on your doorstep while you’re asleep and make one of those dynamic entries to entertain themselves. Luckily most of the sheep-like public have been desensitized to such Fourth Amendment-destroying behavior, or there would be real problems for our black-clad SWAT heroes!

Pommefrite August 28, 2012 (12:42 pm)

PColtraine – we must be neighbors. It was disturbing to see FBI agents on my block. My daughter asked how we can get more info. My answer: West Seattle Blog.

Steps August 28, 2012 (1:22 pm)

The press conference repeatedly referred back to an indictment for details. Any idea where to find that if it is public record now?

West Seattleite August 28, 2012 (4:03 pm)

http://www.fbi.gov/seattle/press-releases/2012/fbi-and-seattle-safe-streets-task-force-target-major-narcotics-distribution-ring-following-lengthy-investigation

WSB August 28, 2012 (4:10 pm)

We covered the briefing live and it’s up as a separate story,including the text of that news release PLUS lots more details that weren’t in the news release, including specifics on the local arrest.
.
https://westseattleblog.com/2012/08/happening-now-briefing-on-todays-raids-in-west-seattle-elsewhere

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