Wednesday's court showed video of the dramatic arrest of the Fairbank's militia members, it was caught on tape by Olsen through a series of cameras installed for that purpose by the FBI. Two of which were installed in Olsen's vehicle and one on Olsen himself. The takedown of the militia members took place in two different operations.

After agreeing on weapons and a price at a local restaurant in Fairbanks, the operation to round them up as they made the actual transaction was set up by the FBI. Olsen picked up the first two, Lonnie and Karen Vernon and drove them to a quiet warehouse parking lot on South Turner Street. Once there, Olsen exited the vehicle and retrieved the weapons from beneath a trailer there. He brought the illegal merchandise back to the truck where Lonnie was seen to remark on the grenades, saying “These aren’t smokers.” Olsen responded by telling him that they were blasters, at which time Lonnie was heard to say, “Alright, let’s do this.”

It was at that time that the FBI sprung into action, amid the FBI hollaring, Karen Vernon can be heard saying, “Holy Shit!” and a flash/bang grenade was detonated. All three were arrested at the scene, all went quietly. Olsen was released a short while later and the scene repeated itself an hour or two later with Schaeffer Cox and Coleman Barney.

This time Olsen took the two militia members to a parking lot on Turner Street. This arrest did not go by the book however. After finding out that the weapons were .22 caliber rather than the 9mm that they wanted, they decided to go through with the deal. Olsen exited to retieve the weapons and returned to the vehicle as he did before in the previous take-down.

This time, the arrrest was complicated by the owner of the warehouse arriving at the scene. As the man approached the truck Cox and Barney concealed their newly purchased weapons. The man questioned the three as to what they were doing there. Olsen responded by saying that he was there to meet another trucker with a flatbed. Olsen explained that he was told to meet the other trucker there and said, I assumed he knew the owner or something.”

The man, the owner of the business there, replied to the three, saying, “Well, the reason that I’m here,” said the man, “is there’s a whole line of guys out there with bulletproof vests on and they all looking in here…like that guy,” as he said this, he pointed towards an FBI agent nearby.

The operation radios crackled with the words, “Compromise, compromise, compromise!” The agents quickly surrounded the truck and arrested all of the men at the scene. The owner of the establishment was only briefly detained and released later.

Information on Gerald Olsen’s past as a drug transporting truck driver for the Hell’s Angels also came to light in court yesterday. But, rather than allowing the defense to bring up the subject after U.S. District Judge Robert Ryan OK’d the release of information, the Prosecution had Olsen testify on his former illegal activities during testimony for the prosecution.