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Fbi raids sandiego homes { August 19 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/08/19/state1732EDT0129.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/08/19/state1732EDT0129.DTL
FBI raids home of San Diego activists in environmental arson case
SETH HETTENA, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
(08-19) 15:05 PDT SAN DIEGO (AP) --
Federal agents raided the home of a pair of San Diego animal activists last week as part of an investigation into a $50 million arson claimed by the Earth Liberation Front, the costliest act ever by the underground group.
David Agranoff said about a dozen or so agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms spent three hours searching his home Thursday, taking with them a computer, documents, protest fliers, a videocamera and some videotapes.
Jan Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the FBI's San Diego office, confirmed the raid, but declined further comment. She said the search warrants remain under seal.
In an e-mail sent Monday to reporters, the Earth Liberation Front's press office said it appeared the fire was targeting "rampant urban development," but said it had not been in contact with those responsible. No one was injured in the fire.
The underground group has claimed responsibility for a slew of arson attacks against commercial entities that members say threaten or damage the environment.
Agranoff, 29, insisted all he knew about the Aug. 1 fire that destroyed a five-story complex under construction in San Diego's fast-growing northern edge came from local news reports. He said investigators would turn up nothing in the search that left his home "completely trashed."
Among other things, federal agents were seeking a videotape of a talk on animal rights and militant environmental activism delivered in San Diego the day of the fire by Rodney Coronado, said Agranoff, who helped arrange the lecture.
Coronado, who served four years in federal prison for a 1992 blaze at a Michigan animal research facility, reiterated Tuesday that he had no role in the San Diego attack and arrived in the city several hours after fire broke out. He said he has not been contacted by investigators.
"My only crime is exercising that thing called free speech," Coronado said in a telephone interview.
Both Agranoff and his fiancee, Cari Beltane, who run Compassion for Farm Animals from their home, said they viewed the raid as part of pattern of harassment of local activists.
On Aug. 3, Agranoff said police placed him in handcuffs for about an hour when officers located a van he'd reported stolen a few blocks from his home. An officer told him that his name "came up in a terrorism investigation," Agranoff said.
In May, Agranoff was ordered to submit hair, saliva, and palm and fingerprints in a grand jury investigation into an arson last year by the Animal Liberation Front, the ELF's sister organization, at an Indiana poultry plant. Agranoff, who denied any ties to either organization, received a suspended sentence for misdemeanor vandalism at the same plant nine years earlier.
©2003 Associated Press
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