GIZMODO: "The Enduring Mystery of an Aggressive FBI Raid Near Area 51"

From Lucas Ropek's 1-19-22 GIZMODO article entitled "The Enduring Mystery of an Aggressive FBI Raid Near Area 51":

[Joerg] Arnu shared pictures with Gizmodo of the damage caused by the feds as they stormed both residences. They clearly showed door frames that have been violently impacted. Arnu says that agents also tracked mud all over his carpeting, broke a desk and a lamp, and left his homes in a state of disarray. The damages from the raids total approximately $5,000, he said.

The biggest loss that the blogger suffered, however, was the assets that police seized during the raids: approximately $20,000 worth of electronics, according to him. This included five computers, multiple phones, external hard drives, digital cameras, and an expensive drone, among other items.

“I’d really like to have my stuff back,” Arnu said in an interview. “I lost all of the backups. I lost literally all of the information that I had saved on my computers, including tax information, financial information, medical records—all of that is gone and is basically being held hostage by the FBI right now.”

As of this week, it’s been more than two months since the government raided both of Arnu’s properties, but he still hasn’t been charged with a crime. He was served with a search warrant that was missing dozens of pages and gave no reason for the raid; the case records related to the warrant have been sealed, so there’s no way of telling what the point of the search was. He also hasn’t been able to get in touch with the FBI, aside from a letter from the agency’s legal department denying reimbursement for the damage caused during the raids, he said. And, it goes without saying, he never got his stuff back.

“I believe the search, executed with completely unnecessary force by overzealous government agents, was meant as a message to silence the Area 51 research community,” Arnu recently wrote on his website.

The lingering questions around the case have yet to be answered: what were federal agents after when they ransacked his residences in Rachel and Las Vegas? Why did they feel the need to conduct their raids with such force? And what exactly did Arnu do to incur their wrath?

To read the entire article, click HERE.