LOS ANGELES (Reuter) Reuters via Individual Inc. : Police
arrested five members of an antigovernment ``militia cell'' in
earlymorning raids Friday, seizing an arsenal of grenades, automatic
rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition, authorities said.

``These people believed in having a sufficient amount of weapons
to wage a war,'' said Police Capt. Joe Curreri.

``They were much better trained, much better disciplined than
the North Hollywood bank robbers,'' he said, referring to two robbers
armed with automatic weapons who shot it out with police in February in a
robbery caught live on television.

The five men were arrested in a series of raids by the
AntiTerrorist Division of the Los Angeles Police Department and were
charged with weapons violations, including possession and/or sales of
fully automatic assault weapons.

The LAPD said in a statement that the arrests were the
culmination of a twoyear investigation into ``antigovernment'' militia
that started after the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995. There was no
indication the arrested men were connected in any way to that bombing.

Property seized at four separate locations included a grenade
launcher, hand grenades, hand grenade components, automatic assault
rifles, body armor, ballistic helmets, night vision goggles, thousands of
rounds of ammunition and over 100 different types of weapons.

Local KNBC television quoted police sources as saying the men
had received ``policelike training'' and that they had ''identified
targets''. Additional suspects were also being investigated, the sources
told KNBC.

The seized weapons were put on display by the police, who also
showed surveillance photographs of armed men apparently taking part in
militarytype exercises.

The police identified the five arrested as suspected leader,
Glenn Yee, a reserve police officer in the city of Irwindale, Alvin Ung,
Mark Grand, Timothy Swanson and Raymond Durand. They were said to belong
to a ``local militia cell'', but police declined any further comment.
REUTER@

[Copyright 1997, Reuters]