michigan state police troopers that participated in this operation acting under the leadership of joe gasperand attorney general nestle and u.s. attorneys and their teams for pursuing criminal charges that hopefully will lead to convictions bringing these sick men to justice. as a mother with two teenage daughters and three stepsons, my husband and i are eternally grateful to everyone who put themselves in harms way to keep our family safe. 2020 has been a hard hit for all of us. hard for our doctors and nurses and truck drivers, groceries or workers. it's been hard for the teachers and students and parents it is not over yet. but here is what i know. we are michiganders. we have heart and we are tough as hell. we made it through the great recession. we made it through the bankruptcies. we made it through floods and polar vortexes. but none of us have faced a challenge like covid-19. i've said it many times, we are not one another's enemy. this virus is our enemy and this enemy is relentless. it doesn't care if you are republican or democrat, young or old, rich or poor. it doesn't care if we

it is my pleasure now to introduce the director of the michigan state police, colonel joe gasper. >> thank you, attorney general, u.s. attorneys, and thank you to the fbi also. i appreciate the opportunity to speak to everyone today and i would first like to start by saying thank you to the men and women of michigan state police, the fbi, and any additional agencies that assisted in this investigation. they not only worked tirelessly over the course of the last 24 to 48 hours but also since the beginning of the investigation. so thank you, job well done. to the partners here today, i want to express our gratitude for the support and cooperation, the partnership all of us here are demonstrating. this case is one of the largest cases in recent history that the msp has been involved in and i think that the nature of this case is rather unprecedented but it does send a very vivid reminder that while we may be in a time period of discourse, possibly even divisiveness, fighting across the nation, law enforcement stands united. and for those who think that law enforcement is distracted, let

fbi assistant special agent in charge josh hoaxhurst and we have michigan state police colonel joe gasperthe interagency effort represented here in tandem with my office culminated in several search warrants and arrests across the state including in the communities of grand rapids, heartland, luther, canton, orion township, waterford, belleville, milford, cadillac, shelbiville, plainwell, zealand, ovid, kalamazoo, charlotte, clarkston, sterling heights and shelby township. our efforts uncovered elaborate plans to endanger the lives of law enforcement officers, government officials and the broader public. the multifront operation to apprehend the suspects in question was carefully coordinated and skillfully executed resulting very fortunately in no casualties. now before we announce the preliminary charges, i want to thank the hundreds of law enforcement officers who worked across agencies and across state lines, and we are very grateful for their safety. with that, i'll ask u.s. attorney for the western district of michigan, mr. andrew birch, to tell you a little more about the effort. >>

joe gasper. >> thank you, attorney general, u.s. attorneys burge and schneider. i appreciate the opportunity to speak to everyone today and first like to start out by saying thank you to the men and women of the michigan state police, the f.b.i. and any additional agencies that assisted in this investigation. they not only worked tirelessly over the course of the last 24-48 hours, but also since the beginning of this investigation. so thank you, job well done. to our partners here today, i want to express our gratitude for the support and the cooperation, the partnership that all of us here are demonstrating. this case is one of the largest cases in recent history that the msp has been involved in and i think that the nature of this case is rather unprecedented, but it does send a very vivid reminder that while we may be in a time period of discourse, possibly even divisiveness and fighting across the nation, law enforcement stands united. and for those who think that law enforcement is distracted, let me assure you that we are very much engaged with taking our r

state police troopers who participated in this operation, acting under the leadership of colonel joe gasper. i want to thank attorney general nestle and u.s. attorneys birch and snyder and their teams for pursuing cripple charges that hopefully will lead to convictions bringing these sick and depraved men to justice. as mom with two teenager daughters and three stepsons, my husband and i are eternally grateful to everyone who put themselves in harm's way to keep our family safe. 2020 has been a hard year for all of us. hard for our doctors and nurses and truckdrivers, grocery store workers. it's been hard for the teachers and students and parents. hard for those who have had to stay isolated to stay safe. it's not over yet, but here is what i know. we're michiganders, we have grit, we're tough as hell. we made it through the recession, floods and polar vortexes. but none of us have faced covid-19 in our lifetimes. i've said it a number of times, we're not one another's enemy. this virus is our enemy. it's relentless. it doesn't care if you're a republican or democrat, young or old, rich or