FBI raids Trenton, N.J., apartment

November 2, 2001 Posted: 11:18 PM EST (0418 GMT)

TRENTON, New Jersey (CNN) -- FBI agents, many wearing oversized hazardous materials suits, raided an apartment here Friday, bringing out bags of seized materials and taking one man in for questioning.

FBI agents and local police arrived at the first-floor apartment about 9 a.m. ET, according to neighbors.

The building owner, Efren Jimenez, said the apartment was home to four Pakistani men who have lived in the complex for the past six years.

No one was home at the time of the raid, Jimenez said, but one of the residents returned while agents were searching the apartment. Witnesses told CNN the man was put into a police car and driven away, but he was not handcuffed.

Residents said agents also searched the backyards of at least four homes that surround the complex. Several trash bags of evidence were also taken from the home, they said. In addition, a general postal collection box near the apartment complex was opened and searched.

The FBI has not returned calls from CNN seeking comment on the raid.

The raid is one of several conducted in the past few days by law enforcement officials searching for the source of anthrax-laced letters that were postmarked from Trenton. Those letters were sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and the offices of the New York Post and NBC News.

A postal carrier at the West Trenton post office contracted cutaneous or skin anthrax after handling the tainted mail.

The FBI has yet to make any direct connection between the September 11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax letters.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2001