In 2021, FBI agents were killed on the job in Broward. Their probe led to 98 arrests
In 2021, two FBI agents were killed while serving a search warrant in Broward County. The agents were part of an international crackdown on child porn that has led to the arrests of 98 people across the U.S. and Australia two years after their deaths.
In a news conference Tuesday, FBI Legal Attaché Nitiana Mann and Australian Federal Police Commander Helen Schneider announced the arrests of 19 Australians and 79 Americans for their roles in an online child exploitation network. Thirteen children were rescued during the Australian raid.
The U.S. probe, Mann said, sparked 350 leads and 303 investigations. So far, 43 people have been convicted as part of the bust.
The FBI also sent 211 “international packages,” which include evidence and suspect identifying information, to investigators in different countries.
While speaking to reporters Tuesday, Mann was asked about the role of the murdered agents in the international operation.
Special agents Daniel Alfin, 36, and Laura Schwartzenberger, 43, were conducting a search warrant in February 2021 when they approached the Sunrise home of David Lee Huber.
The 55-year-old computer programmer monitored the agents through a doorbell camera and ended up ambushing them with an assault rifle and later turning the gun on himself.
“The shooting of the FBI agents did not instigate the investigation,” Mann said during the news conference in Brisbane, Australia. “The investigation preceded that event. As a result of the investigation, the enforcement of the search warrant, two of our special agents were killed. I’ll leave it at that.”
The deaths of Alfin and Schwartzenberger marked one of the bloodiest days for the FBI in decades. The deadliest event in the bureau’s history — which happened more than three decades before — also took place in South Florida.
Special agents Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove were gunned down during a shootout with bank robbers in what is now Pinecrest. Grogan, 53, a two-decade veteran nicknamed The Doctor, was one year shy of retirement when he died.
The “Miami Shootout” — which left five other agents wounded and the two suspects dead the morning of April 11, 1986 near Kendall — was a defining moment in the FBI’s history. It prompted the bureau to make sure all agents were better armed, replacing .38-caliber revolvers with 9mm semi-automatic handguns.
