Posted on 06/17/2014 3:41:05 AM PDT by rarestia
An FBI manhunt is ongoing for the 55-year-old Valrico man wanted on federal charges of manufacturing illegal weapons.
The search for Martin Winters ranged from Plant City to Lithia on Monday. Officials say Winters, described as "extremeley dangerous" is the subject of an FBI investigation.
There currently is no law enforcement presence in the area.
Agents say Winters was illegally obtaining assault rifles and building pipe bombs.
Federal agents dressed in camouflage gear and holding rifles kept their eyes on an area of woods off Lithia Pinecrest Road Monday evening.
According to authorities, Winters was approached by authorities while in his vehicle just before 9 a.m. Monday on Cheryl Court in Plant City. Officials said Winters got out of his vehicle and ran into a wooded area near Durant High School, which was briefly locked down.
A SWAT team and helicopters were brought in but Winters got away.
Officials said there is an outstanding federal arrest warrant for Winters. According to a federal indictment, Winters is accused of "making destructive devices.”
Investigators said Winter's plan included killing government agents if he or any member of his group were attacked. Winters is described as a Doomsday prepper, and officials said he buried weapons, ammunition and zip-locked food around several of his properties to to prepare for what he called the end of time.
The federal affidavit points out a YouTube video that shows a man they believed to be Winters digging up one of the many 55 gallons barrels on his and other properties near his home.
The federal affidavit goes on to say Winters is part of a group called the River Otter Preppers, and that he had a plan to kill government agents when he needed to. Investigators say he also made statements about creating booby traps at his home in Valrico, then shooting law enforcement officers when they tried to run away.
Winters was indicted in October on four counts of building destructive devices. He has been under government surveillance since then, according to the FBI.
According to officials, Winters 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.
Winters also said he had at least 40 men that were willing to participate in his "last stand," officials said.
Was the plan written? Recorded? Or just statements?
While I never specifically commented on that particular phrasing, I have no way to believe the recounting of the ‘plans’ is legitimate. Just more ‘evidence’ of dubious provenance.
12 gauge shotgun bores are bigger than .5” What is so special about that number?
Sounds like the Southern Poverty Law Center has stuck their nose in.
Since the jug eared clown in the WH has been actively, as in full bore, ginning up dissent in the American people for the last month you can bet there will be more.
The link to the indictment is on one of the earlier threads. Its in the article not the thread. Will see if I can find it.
I’m not an expert but I think the .5 inch limit is written into law. Not sure how the 12 gauge is different except its not a rifle caliber.
From this thread - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3168625/posts
The Search Warrant application - http://archive.wtsp.com/assetpool/documents/140616053710_WintersSearchWarrant.pdf
The Indictment - http://archive.wtsp.com/assetpool/documents/140616053357_WintersIndictment.pdf
The charge is for possessing a firearm which was not registered to him. Guess they are saying its a class III firearm that he had.
The Federal agents could have asked him to make the bore .51 inch for them.
Must be for pistol cartridges then. I don’t know. There are rifle cartridges with bigger than 0.5”
My Fathers Day goodies were 4 bullet comparison posters for Handguns, Big Bores, Rifles and Military cartridges. 1:1 scale pictures of each type....neat. Looking for the poster sleeves now.
This is clearly abuse and reeks of reasoning with lies to cover their arm-chair
military tactics.
Exactly what law has this man broken?
If you read through the search warrant he used straw buyers to purchase AR15s and made booby traps which consisted of a 12ga shell in a pipe.
I didn’t make it all the way through so there may be more.
The interesting thing to me is the use of the word “attack” in the article.
Attack does not describe a legitimate law enforcement action. The article doesn’t claim that he was going to attack federal agents, it claims he voiced an intent to respond if attacked.
That should cause free people to demand explanations from the feds.
IOW, a homemade shotgun. Also, Straw purchasers....seems to me the illegal act is committed by the purchaser. There would have to be some other evidence of the intent and disposition beyond just the purchase.
Seems a reasonable position to me.
Well said and exactly one of the key parts to this that have clued me into this being a setup.
The guy might be guilty of stupidity, but I'm not seeing anything other than a bunch of ATF goons trying to jam up a prepper for being prepared.
There currently is no law enforcement presence in the area.
There are a few who get in but they don’t last long and can’t move up unless they “play the game”. Their words, not mine
No suspicious white powder this time?
Isn’t that the weirdest sentence you’ve ever seen? Why would that be publicized? They’ve said it on TV as well. Even my wife was left asking why that’s been made public.
If this guy is as well prepared he has food, water, cash transportation and arms.
A bug out spot and a plan.
He is long gone or shots well be fired shortly.
Starting to look like his bug-out plan is working .
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