Federal agents raid Florida Keys house, by land in armed SUVS and by water in a raft
Heavily armed FBI agents raided a Florida Keys house Friday morning, according to neighbors.
Agents dressed in body armor and carrying semiautomatic rifles came to the Mars Lane house on Geiger Key by SUVs with mounted turrets and by raft in a canal.
Law enforcement sources said the raid was connected to a human trafficking investigation. Several people were taken into custody, but it was not immediately clear if there were any formal arrests or charges.
Neighbor Belinda Coyner took video of agents throwing a flash-bang grenade into the home and yelling demands for those inside to exit the Lower Keys house because they had an arrest warrant.
She also posted multiple images and videos of agents breaching the property, arriving by dinghy and taking several people into custody.
The FBI was not immediately available to comment on the raid.
Coyner, 63, has lived in her home on Mars Lane since 2011. She said she’s never seen anything unusual going on at the house raided by the feds.
“No, I’m actually shocked,” she said.
Justin Duane, another neighbor, told the Miami Herald/FLKeysnews.com he had just woken up when he heard chaos.
“I woke up to flash-bangs going off, not knowing what was going on. I heard them over the microphone stating they were FBI and for the people in [the house] to come out, they have a warrant,” Duane said. “Flash-bangs and smoke bombs continued to go off till someone came out.”
Duane, 41, lives across the canal from the raided home. He said there were often a lot of people hanging out on the property.
“I’ve always jokingly made comments that they were trafficking Cubans in, but never was really worried about it or I would have said something, being I have a young daughter at home,” he said. “They mainly just fished, working out, listening to music and riding Jet Skis. Seemed like they had a good time when I would see them hanging out.”
WLRN Florida Keys reporter Gwen Filosa contributed to this report.
