What happened with the 3-day FBI raid in Lakewood?

Shore News Network

LAKEWOOD, NJ – Two weeks ago the Federal Bureau of Investigation spent three days investigating different businesses in Lakewood and at some locations, agents were seen bringing boxes of medical equipment and supplies to their waiting vehicles, but two weeks later, the FBI isn’t saying what happened.

We’ve reached out to FBI field offices to get an update.  If it was nothing, then we feel the people who were target of the now very public investigation should be exonerated because their business names were plastered worldwide.  If they were guilty and there was a crime committed, there is the public need to know since the operation was such a huge visual spectacle and speculations about the raid have run wild.

The FBI’s official stance is that they do not confirm nor deny ongoing investigations, but when dozens of agents wearing FBI field jackets show up in your town, it’s kind of difficult for the agency to deny anything at all happened.   To date, no local law enforcement agency has divulged any information about the three day long investigation that went as quickly as it came.   Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and Governor Phil Murphy acknowledged the ongoing investigation, prompting Murphy say of people who hoard medical supplies, “There’s a special place in hell for those people.”

LAKEWOOD, NJ (APRIL 25, 2020) – Friday was the third day of an ongoing FBI investigation in Lakewood Township related to medical equipment, but officials are still not even confirming the existence of the action.


It started Wednesday when over one dozen agents showed up at Lakewood Industrial Park warehouse.


WEDNESDAY

Agents showed up at a warehouse at approximately 4:30 pm located at 1980 Swarthmore Avenue.  The warehouse of Deco-Tile was where the agents were entering and exiting, later some were seen bringing out boxes of medical supplies.  No visible arrests were made.  We contact the FBI Newark office who declined to comment about the case.  When asked to confirm an earlier report on the Lakewood Scoop to see if the investigation was a case of mistaken identity, the agency seemed surprised by the question but refused to answer, suggesting it was not.

FBI press spokesperson Patty Hartman, of the Newark field office, declined to offer details of the investigation.

THURSDAY

On Thursday, the FBI returned to Lakewood, this time at an industrial park building located at 155 Oberlin in the morning hours.  It was at this operation that it was learned that the FBI was looking into large quantities of protective medical masks.   Agents loaded at least four box trucks full of medical masks.

At Governor Murphy’s daily COVID-19 press conference, Governor Phil Murphy acknowledged the FBI investigation in Lakewood.

“Because it looks like a law enforcement matter, we won’t have much to say,” Governor Phil Murphy said regarding the two days of FBI and Department of Justice raids against Lakewood businesses. “U.S. Attorney and FBI are both involved and I’m sure our Attorney General will also be involved.”

FRIDAY

FBI agents were once again spotted in Lakewood, this time at a residential home in the vicinity of New Hampshire Avenue and Oak Street to investigate a report of a residential homeowner with a large supply of medical equipment and masks in a garage.

To date, no visible arrests have been made and it appears the investigation is ongoing.   Neither the Lakewood Police, Ocean County Sheriff’s Department, New Jersey Attorney General, or the FBI have publicly commented on the events transpiring in the township as of yet.

 

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