Daily Mail – by Joel ChristieFederal agents this week searched the Florida home of a ‘doomsday prepper’ they alleged had stockpiled over 50 high-powered assault rifles and several explosive devices buried around his property as ‘booby traps’.
However the warrant showed up little more than barrels of food.
Martin Winters, a father-of-three from Valrico, surrendered to police on Wednesday following a widespread two-day hunt.
Investigators had claimed the 55-year-old was preparing for ‘an end-of-times event as prophesied by the Book of Revelations’, according to ABC News.
False alarm? Agents went to the Valrico property of Martin Winters looking for as many as 50 high-powered AR-15 rifles and several explosive devices, but found only buried barrels of food
Raid: Federal agents exact a search warrant on the home of alleged ‘doomsday prepper’ Martin Winters in Valrico, Florida
Martin Winters allegedly told an undercover agent he had built illegal weapons, along with concerning comments about how he was going to use them
According to a federal affidavit, Winters was part of a group called the River Otter Preppers and had a plan to kill government agents ‘if necessary’.
Winters allegedly told an undercover agent he had 50 AR-15 rifles buried on his property and other properties.
The agent also said Winters told him he wanted to burn his house down and then shoot agents as they arrived to the scene, and that he had set up bombs as booby traps.
Winters had been under government surveillance since October, after he was indicted on four counts of building destructive devices.
Winters also said he had at least 40 men that were willing to participate in his ‘last stand’, officials said.
But in federal court on Wednesday, Winters’ defense attorney, Ellis Faught, said the confidential informant’s estimates were wide of the mark.
The informant had bought four so-called destructive devices from Winters, but they were not buried as booby traps.
Five guns were found locked in a safe, according to 10 News.
Martin Winters had been under government surveillance since October, after being arrested on explosives charges
The FBI alleged that Martin and others had been stockpiling arms and also set traps on his property. According to the FBI, he was attached to a doomsday group preparing for ‘an end-of-times event as prophesied by the Book of Revelations’
‘None of this was there,’ Fraught told the court, the station reported.
‘And it’s my understanding that no guns were dug up.
‘It was alleged by the government that there were 50 to 60 guns and I’m only aware of five of them that were found and they were found in his house in a safe.’
The FBI have not formally released what they found in the search and could present new evidence in their case against Winters.
Winters’ daughters said in an interview with 10 News that their father was not ‘extremely dangerous’, as authorities had claimed.
‘We knew he wouldn’t hurt anyone. We knew he wouldn’t put anyone else in jeopardy,’ the daughters said.
Amy Cason – one of Martin Winters’ daughters and pictured here with her father – says he never intended to hurt anyone
They added that what is buried on the property is dozens of barrels of food.
‘He is just preparing if days were to come where there was no grocery store and you had to have food and you couldn’t go get it,’ said Winters’ youngest daughter, Tracie.
‘It’s not like he’s preparing to hurt anyone ever. That’s not his intentions.’
Winters will remain in jail until his next court appearance on July 17.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2663810/FBI-raid-home-doomsday-prepper-accusing-stockpiling-assault-rifles-bombs-government-attack-food.html#ixzz35JdQm6mw
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They FBI raided Santa’s home? This is not a good thing.
. . .
“Investigators had claimed the 55-year-old was preparing for ‘an end-of-times event as prophesied by the Book of Revelations’,…”
He has every right to do just that. So what the f%&k business of yours is it if he does?
Can’t wait till the shoe is on the other foot, and you’re defending your homes and lives from angry mobs who want nothing less than street justice.
You won’t be so cocky then, @ssholes.
🙂
They were hoping for Ruby Ridge, Or fabricating some BS charge to force the poor guy to act as a federal rat. The FBI probably has plans to burn down a church or wipe out a day care and needs a patsy to plant evidence that it was the head quarters of “tea party terrorist”. Guilty even if proven innocent. All you have to be is white and a gun owner. If this had been a Mexican gang banger or a black panther he would have “rights” but because he MIGHT be a “right wing nutjob” the feds fabricate a felony and destroy this innocent mans life. How much longer will we tolerate the federal gang rape of America?–
Comment kifed d/t realism in our America. Never mind what’s crawling
over the boarder.
This guy was totally set up. This was done as a deliberate smear. I live about 1 hour away from this guy. The Valrico area is mostly comprised of suburbanites with a rural outlying setting. The neighborhood he lives in is home to mostly good people in a rural setting. However, his mistake was telling people in his neighborhood that are completely asleep at the wheel, deer in the headlights, sheeple. It was a couple of those neighbors that got together and called him in. This is what people need to watch out for. The see something, say something, Nazi rat crowd.
Additionally, the local radio and television were on a massive smear campaign against this guy. He fled into the woods near his home for a day while he figured out a way to get himself turned in. The whole while he was in the woods, the news reports were utterly pathetic. They were talking about how he is an expert survivalist that could live in the woods for months at a time. That he knew all the hiding places and had food and weapons stored all around the woods. If he hadn’t turn himself in, they would’ve killed him for sure.
So, I was laughing my ass off when he had his wife pick him up, went and had lunch, picked up his two attorneys, then drove himself to the FBI Tampa office. That must have been quite the disappointment to all the trigger happy thugs that wanted to drop him at 200 yards with a .308 sniper rifle. Anyway, he turned himself in and he invoked his right to remain silent. We’ll see what happens next.
Seems the government is getting scared. I wonder how much he’ll get when he sues the government for this massive blunder.