U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says three people arrested Thursday in the United States may have provided funds to the Pakistani-American charged in the recent failed bombing in New York's Times Square. U.S. agents carried out raids on locations in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, as well as in New York and New Jersey.
Federal agents detained a man in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, Thursday morning, after executing search warrants connected to the failed bomb plot in New York's Times Square.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder talked about the raids before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington Thursday.
"Several individuals who were encountered during those searches have been taken into federal custody for alleged immigration violations. These searches are the product of evidence that has been gathered in the investigation since the attempted Times Square bombing and do not relate to any known immediate threat to the public or active plot against the United States."
Authorities arrested a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, Faisal Shahzad, two days after an explosive device inside a sports utility vehicle failed to detonate in Times Square on May 1.
Security officials in Massachusetts say there are no known threats to Boston and that Thursday's raids at a suburban home and a fuel station followed a period of close, confidential contact with New York's police department and federal agents.
"As soon as there was a nexus to Boston in this investigation, we began to send additional information out to all of our patrol officers - information about IEDS, information about VBEDS, vehicle-borne explosive devices," said Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis. "We also put additional surveillance units on at any public gathering that was substantial."
Officials refused to provide details about Thursday's searches and detentions, citing the ongoing investigation.
