The FBI temporarily shut down and raided a handful of local convenience stores Thursday, leading Arab store owners to decry the search-and-seizure operations as racial profiling.This reminded me of a similar situation earlier this year. Jihad Watch has the details of the raids from February 2006:
Terrebonne Narcotics Task Force agents Steven Bergeron (foreground) and Shane Fletcher carry items confiscated by the FBI out of Smoke Plus in the 5500 block of West Main Street in Houma. FBI officials have not said what they confiscated or why they were at several Terrebonne stores Thursday.
The government agents targeted clothing and smoking materials during their searches, store owners said, but authorities did not reveal the reasons for the searches or whether any arrests were made by late Thursday afternoon.
Agents on the scene referred questions to the FBI field office in New Orleans, where FBI Agent John Rook said Thursday’s raids were part of a statewide sweep. Because they are based on sealed federal indictments, however, Rook said he could not discuss anything about them.
TV 8 News has learned FBI agents and local law enforcement authorities are conducting a raid of service stations and businesses owned by Middle Easterners in Northeast Louisiana. Agents executed search warrants today at 10 businesses in Tallulah, Delhi, Monroe and Ruston.Law enforcement was looking at the possibility of money laundering, and counterfeiting in the earlier incident. The raids today were conducted by Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Terrebonne Narcotics Task Force. A news report from today notes that 19 people were indicted in the February roundup, which focued on counterfeit goods.
Given that profiling of Arab-Americans is sure to bring down CAIR onto the FBI and law enforcement heads, there has to be a good reason for them to carry out these raids.
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