Now we know a little bit more about what went down Wednesday morning when agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation shockingly raided YouTube star Jake Paul‘s sprawling mansion property in Calabasas, California on a sealed search warrant.
According to a statement released by the bureau to local news media later in the day, agents are investigating criminal acts related to an incident that took place back in May at the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall. This was amid the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in response to Minnesota resident George Floyd‘s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
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As you’ll recall, the 23-year-old vlogger was at the Phoenix-area mall that infamous night. Law enforcement officials have called the incident a “riot,” citing cases of mass looting and trespassing by multiple parties. Paul was arrested for being at the mall at the time of the incident, and at one point faced misdemeanor charges for his alleged role therein, but those charges were since dropped and he’s denied being there for anything more than seeking to film content for his YouTube channel.
Well now, in a statement to ABC 7 and other local El Lay news outlets, the FBI has indicated they aren’t finished looking into the event, saying (below):
“The FBI is investigating allegations of criminal acts surrounding the incident at Scottsdale Fashion Square in May 2020.”
Hmmm…
Along with Paul’s home, agents simultaneously raided the Las Vegas, Nevada home of Arman Izadi on Wednesday morning, as well. Izadi is a close friend of the controversial YouTuber who had also been at the mall with him on that fateful night and was also arrested on a misdemeanor charge, only to have them later dropped.
Scottsdale police explained why local charges had been dismissed on Wednesday:
“It has been decided that in the cases charging Jake Paul, Arman Izadi and Andrew Leon it is in the best interest of the community to dismiss misdemeanor charges without prejudice so that a federal criminal investigation can be completed.”
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DAMN!
It’s still unclear exactly what officials were searching for in their raids, but we know at least one thing they found: guns. Not only did we report yesterday on the presence of firearms in and around the house that were quickly seized by law enforcement officials, but looking back through Jake’s recent vids makes it surprisingly obvious just how much heat this Cleveland native is packin’ in quiet Calabasas.
For one, watch this video (below) right around the 7:47 mark, and note what you see (also pictured inset, above) when Jake and fellow YouTube star Tanner Fox casually walk into his room amid a prank:
Whoa! Those are two LARGE guns! And they look very much like the same ones seized from Jake’s property on Wednesday morning by federal agents. Just what (and who) exactly are we dealing with here?!
But wait… it gets worse…
Multiple simultaneous federal raids on sealed search warrants spanning several cities seem serious enough on its own, of course. To be fair to Paul’s crew, though, nobody was arrested and taken into custody on Wednesday, and it appears the feds received full cooperation from those occupying the properties involved.
But now, we’re also learning the raid follows a series of unexplained noises and mysterious incidents that have allegedly been taking place “frequently” on Jake’s sprawling Calabasas property. One neighbor spoke to CBSLA about that, saying (below):
“Big loud explosions at night. These are just mysterious things in the night.”
Jake, buddy, WTF?! Clearly there’s more to the story here than what we know even now, a full day after the initial sweep. It’s sort of tempting to say “here we go again” on this one considering Jake’s long-time pattern of shockingly bad behavior, but a multi-city federal raid resulting in seizing weapons is some next level s**t, even for Team 10!!!
We’ll continue to keep you posted on the aftermath of the FBI’s deep dive into Jake Paul’s life, of course. In the meantime, let us know what you think about all this crazy stuff down in the comments (below)!!!
[Image via FayesVision/WENN/YouTube]
The post FBI Raid On Jake Paul’s House Connected To Arizona Mall Riot; Guns Seized Following Days Of ‘Big Loud Explosions’ On Property appeared first on Perez Hilton.