Order Only: Arrests
Jun. 25th, 2011 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_arthurI'm still stuck here at the office--I was called in at noon on an emergency basis. You'll have seen the list of names in the Prophet today. I suspect they'll have more details tomorrow, but I can fill in some of it.
Raids started Thursday night, beginning with six arrests in a rather seedy but well-secured flat in Northampton. Individuals involved with this cell are specifically accused of targeting the Malfoys. The big fish in this group was a man by the name of John Grant, originally from York, who worked as a regional distributor for a catering firm that supplies camps all over the midlands and east (and therefore he had contacts with cells in these other areas). Two of the others taken into custody, brothers Robert and Thomas Wintour, worked with the same company. Christopher Wright worked at the Daventry camp (his father, John Wright, was also picked up). Everard Digby was the sixth. Besides the regional coordination that John Grant did, this group worked at spreading copies of their Grim Truths into the camps and building a recruitment network.
Interrogation of suspects detained over the past month led to the arrests in Northampton and another cluster in York where they caught Thom Percy and Roberta Keyes, who were operating one of Dogstar's underground presses. The press has been seized, and MLE has confiscated a cache of seditious materials in a warehouse in Ripon. Simultaneously, a man called Eric Wood was detained, along with his muggleborn housekeeper. I don't have any details concerning the charges in that instance.
What got me called in today was the need to process a large group of muggle and muggleborn labourers, because the enclave where they've been working, in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, was raided last night. Again, the name 'Wood' has come up. Molly, I'm sorry to say it includes members of Oliver Wood's family (Oliver was a roommate in Gryffindor with our Percy).
Most of the people I interviewed this afternoon were very tight-lipped, obviously not trusting me, but the mothers of young children among them are clearly terrified that their families might now be split up between various camps. Molly, it would have broken your heart--one of them got down on her knees, literally on her knees, to beg me for mercy. Sickening. I did my best to soothe her and will certainly try to find them temporary assignments where families may remain together, but of course what happens to them in the long run depends upon the course of the investigation. It's curious: there are quite a few very young children in the group, considering it was supposed to be exclusively a labouring community. I have not heard anything concerning any accusations of involvement of this group with Dogstar. It may be that they have run afoul of various regulations concerning their adherence to purity codes (I believe there is evidence of at least one pureblood/muggleborn relationship, with children from the union). I am not sure yet whether that is simply an excuse on the part of authorities for some other, hidden agenda, or simple fact.
I've had word of yet more arrests last night, in Leeds, but don't have details. Bill, can you add any more information?
Raids started Thursday night, beginning with six arrests in a rather seedy but well-secured flat in Northampton. Individuals involved with this cell are specifically accused of targeting the Malfoys. The big fish in this group was a man by the name of John Grant, originally from York, who worked as a regional distributor for a catering firm that supplies camps all over the midlands and east (and therefore he had contacts with cells in these other areas). Two of the others taken into custody, brothers Robert and Thomas Wintour, worked with the same company. Christopher Wright worked at the Daventry camp (his father, John Wright, was also picked up). Everard Digby was the sixth. Besides the regional coordination that John Grant did, this group worked at spreading copies of their Grim Truths into the camps and building a recruitment network.
Interrogation of suspects detained over the past month led to the arrests in Northampton and another cluster in York where they caught Thom Percy and Roberta Keyes, who were operating one of Dogstar's underground presses. The press has been seized, and MLE has confiscated a cache of seditious materials in a warehouse in Ripon. Simultaneously, a man called Eric Wood was detained, along with his muggleborn housekeeper. I don't have any details concerning the charges in that instance.
What got me called in today was the need to process a large group of muggle and muggleborn labourers, because the enclave where they've been working, in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, was raided last night. Again, the name 'Wood' has come up. Molly, I'm sorry to say it includes members of Oliver Wood's family (Oliver was a roommate in Gryffindor with our Percy).
Most of the people I interviewed this afternoon were very tight-lipped, obviously not trusting me, but the mothers of young children among them are clearly terrified that their families might now be split up between various camps. Molly, it would have broken your heart--one of them got down on her knees, literally on her knees, to beg me for mercy. Sickening. I did my best to soothe her and will certainly try to find them temporary assignments where families may remain together, but of course what happens to them in the long run depends upon the course of the investigation. It's curious: there are quite a few very young children in the group, considering it was supposed to be exclusively a labouring community. I have not heard anything concerning any accusations of involvement of this group with Dogstar. It may be that they have run afoul of various regulations concerning their adherence to purity codes (I believe there is evidence of at least one pureblood/muggleborn relationship, with children from the union). I am not sure yet whether that is simply an excuse on the part of authorities for some other, hidden agenda, or simple fact.
I've had word of yet more arrests last night, in Leeds, but don't have details. Bill, can you add any more information?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-26 03:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-26 03:41 am (UTC)