The FBI has raided a Long Island house – seizing computer files and piles of other material – in its hunt for a band of eco-terrorists who have declared war on urban development, officials said yesterday.
Members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force executed a search warrant on the house in Coram about 3 p.m. yesterday, the officials said.
The names of the home’s owner and occupants were not revealed.
FBI spokesman Joseph Valiquette confirmed that a search warrant was executed but declined to reveal where or what case was involved.
The bureau is searching for the Earth Liberation Front, which has claimed responsibility for acts of vandalism nationally and on Long Island.
Its most recent attack occurred before dawn Sunday in Suffolk County when it set fire to a dump truck and payloader at Melo’s Construction Corp. in Miller Place, causing $8,000 in damage.
A company employee said the group must have attacked the wrong place.
“We’re not home builders. We just do curbs and sidewalks,” she said.
Earlier this month, ELF claimed responsibility for burning three new luxury homes on a former Suffolk County peach farm in Mount Sinai. Sprayed on a fourth home were the words, “If you build it, we will burn it.”
In a statement faxed to several news organizations yesterday, ELF said that Melo’s construction equipment was torched to “stop exploitation and destruction of the natural environment.”
“All businesses, large and small, which participate in earth-raping industries, will continue to be a target,” the statement said.