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Monday, October 15, 2007

Small Town Feel /Massive Federal Raid?

I think the juxtaposition of having "dozens" of federal agents with equipment and vehicles swarm a local business here in Lafayette, a smallish, up and coming bedroom community is fascinating. Who knows what other seedy activities are going on right under our comfortable suburban noses? My mind reels with the possibilities, and it makes Lafayette seem somehow more hip in a dangerous, we're-on-the-feds-short-list kind of way.

This raid on Rocky Mountain Instrument, involved 50 vehicles and included agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service which investigates terrorism, computer crimes, illegal technology transfers and public corruption.

Here's the Camera's version of the story, and the Rocky Mountain News.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is going to be increased scrutiny of any funny looking activity in the area leading up to the Democratic Convention, less than a year away. I hope the press keeps up with this story. It's incredibly rare to have an event of this nature in Lafayette.

Doktorbombay said...

And yet, very little media coverage, if any, when the IRS shut down this business a few years ago for presumably not paying their payroll taxes. (The employees thought this was the end of their jobs.)

Fortunately, the owner was able to secure financing to pay off the amounts due and reopen in just a day or so. Supposedly this non payment was occurring without the owner's knowledge. I've met this guy, this is believable to me. Nice guy, known for his optics knowledge, not his business savvy. Lots of things could be going on under that roof, with no knowledge of the owner.

Anybody at town hall aware of the shaky history of this employer?

Anonymous said...

Not me. We don't get full briefings from our PD on suspicious stuff going on in town. Usually only if it is going to hit the media.

Given the agencies involved, I can only guess this has something to do with intellectual property or products/technology sold outside the U.S. There are strict laws that govern that. Just a guess.

Doktorbombay said...

And, given the agencies involved, I doubt the local PD knows much more than we do, even after the raid.