The Raid
The assembled joint task force penetrated the Hezbollah cell, developing more than ten informants from within the group, as well as from a pool of witnesses. Informants were gleaned from cell staff members, including drivers, smugglers, and even spouses. Simultaneous raids in North Carolina and Michigan at 6:00 a.m. on July 20, 2000 captured many cell members and accomplices. A total of 18 arrest warrants were executed. The arrest of Said Muhammad Harb provided invaluable insights into the structure of the Hezbollah cell, its members, and operations. In exchange for his cooperation, Harb received a lighter sentence, and his family was relocated from Lebanon to the United States. At least 230 local, state, and federal agents participated in the raids.
Read more about this topic: Operation Smokescreen
Famous quotes containing the word raid:
“Each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“John Brown and Giuseppe Garibaldi were contemporaries not solely in the matter of time; their endeavors as liberators link their names where other likeness is absent; and the peaks of their careers were reached almost simultaneously: the Harper’s Ferry Raid occurred in 1859, the raid on Sicily in the following year. Both events, however differing in character, were equally quixotic.”
—John Cournos (1881–1956)