FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (BROWARD COUNTY) - An arrest article posted on wsvn.com reports that a South Florida man has been arrested following an FBI raid on the man's home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The 32-year-old defendant was apprehended during an FBI raid near Southwest 14th Avenue and Sixth Street in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to the FBI, the defendant was arrested because he is a convicted felon, and he was illegally in possession of a firearm.
The defendant was transported and booked into the Broward County Jail last Wednesday afternoon after spending most of the morning before a federal judge charged the defendant with illegally possessing a firearm.
According to one of the defendant's neighbors, they were awoken at around 6 in the morning to the sound of loud banging. The neighbors stated that they saw smoke and flashes. Later, the neighbors witnessed the officers leaving the suspect's home with boxes that appeared to contain a shotgun and maybe an AK-47 rifle.
The defendant had not lived in the neighborhood for a long time. The defendant's landlord stated the defendant moved to the Fort Lauderdale area from New Jersey about one month ago.
The defendant's landlord said, "He moved in on the first of February." Neighbors stayed by himself, and they would see him every now and then carrying in groceries, and they would try to engage him in conversation. However, the defendant just kept to himself. Social media showed a different story of the defendant who used BitChute to spread hate about African Americans, Jewish people, and the LGBT community.
The man's face appeared on the cable channel One America News. The defendant was explaining that he wasn't able to get inside into a speaking event featuring the founder of the Proud Boys group. The defendant stated that members of Antifa ran him off.
The Anti-Defamation League stated that their group had been tracking the defendant for several months because he is known to some local officials as a potentially violent white supremacist.
ADL senior investigative researcher Carla Hill stated that she was concerned, as the man grew increasingly popular online with his antics via Omegle and other sites, that h could attempt to please his social media followers further.
It's too soon to confirm if his online activity is related to his arrest. Those documents are currently sealed.
The federal prosecutors will probably outline their criminal case against the defendant in the next hearing criminal, which is set for Friday morning.
Should the defendant be convicted on the weapons charge, he will face ten years in prison.
The neighbors who captured the cellphone video of the defendant being arrested by FBI agents.