(NewsNation) — Immigration and Customs and Enforcement officers, working in coordination with other law enforcement agencies, took 30 people into custody at a North Carolina fire equipment business who were accused of stealing identities to gain work authorization.
ICE officers executed a criminal search warrant Wednesday at Buckeye Fire Equipment Company in Kings Mountain. The agency said the search warrant was part of an ongoing investigation into aggravated identity theft and possible violations related to the employees, who the agency claimed were not authorized to work in the United States.
Other agencies — including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals, the FBI, and local police — were also part of the operation, federal agencies said.
“Identity fraud is not a victimless crime — it fuels a range of criminal activity and puts innocent people at risk,” said special agent Cardell T. Morant, with Charlotte’s Homeland Security Investigations agency, said in a statement. “Working alongside our law enforcement partners, HSI will continue to pursue those who exploit these systems for personal gain and hold them accountable under federal law.”
Messages sent by NewsNation to ICE and a representative from Buckeye Fire Equipment Company seeking comment and more information about the raid were not immediately returned on Friday.
The allegations made as part of the investigation claimed the business had hired immigrants lacking proper documentation and who may have had fraudulent Social Security numbers.
An ICE spokesperson told reporters Wednesday that in executing the search warrant, special agents from ICE and HSI went in with a “certain mission” and that “as you discover other crimes and things, you act upon them,” NewsNation affiliate Queen City News reported this week.
The spokesperson said that about 300 employees were inside the business at the time of the raid. Employees told the local television station that officers came into the business with masks on and guns drawn. Eric Pinon, a U.S. citizen, said that employees were kept inside a room for an hour before being interrogated outside.
Multiple media outlets reported the enforcement operation lasted several hours.
“They were asking questions like, ‘Are you a U.S. citizen? Anybody in there? You a citizen or not? You a citizen?’ Or if, like, anybody that’s working without papers or under a different name,” Pinon told Queen City News.
Reports indicated the company has contracts with several agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Small Business Administration.
The operation in North Carolina came just weeks after a similar operation at a Nebraska food-packing plant, in which more than 70 migrants were taken into federal custody. They were accused of using stolen Social Security numbers to gain work authorization and benefits.
Federal investigators determined that “massive” numbers of stolen identities were taken by workers, affecting 100 people in multiple states. The workers at Glenn Valley Foods were taken into federal custody on June 10, when federal agents conducted the raid at the plant in Omaha.