Questions remain 16 months after dual raids on Area 51 website creator
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Answers remain alarmingly scarce following a 2022 raid on the homes of the creator of a popular website based on Area 51.
On Nov. 3, 2022, teams of heavily armed federal agents kicked in the doors of two Nevada homes to serve search warrants. Today, those warrants remain a mystery.
Joerg Arnu, the creator of dreamlandresort.com, owns the locations, a website that focuses on the world’s most enigmatic military base, Area 51. Like most things related to the base itself, the truth behind the warrants in question is elusive and murky.
“I hear this banging and a voice,” Arnu recounted, adding that the voice called his name, identified themselves as from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI,) and said they had a search warrant.
Arnu, himself barely awake in those early morning hours, remembered all hell breaking loose in his Rachel home, nestled not too far from the outskirts of the world’s best-known “secret” base.
“The door of my house they kicked in, and I’m getting out of bed, and I’m faced with […] about six or eight people in my little hallway with riot shields, guns drawn, pointed at me,” Arnu remembered. “Before I knew it, I was in handcuffs, dragged out of my house.”
Agents from the FBI and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) spent hours searching the home. They seized every computer, hard drive, and camera before barking questions at Arnu in an intense and lengthy interrogation. For his part, Arnu said he was never told what the raid was about, having not been handed the search warrant until hours after the incident was over.
“I still don’t know exactly what it is that they’re holding against me,” Arnu said.
The warrant, authorized by a federal judge, was nearly entirely redacted and blacked out.
At the same time as the Rachel raid, another team of agents raided Arnu’s Las Vegas home. Similarly, those doors were bashed in, guns were drawn, and Arnu’s girlfriend was interrogated, being told that Arnu was a fugitive and on the run somewhere. She was coaxed into revealing the names of Arnu’s friends and associates.
The busted doors, seized property, and legal fees have cost Arnu a bundle, he said.
“I’m about $32,000 in the hole,” Arnu said.
16 months later, the raid is still shrouded in mystery. No charges have been filed, and neither Arnu nor his attorney have been told what prompted more than 24 federal agents to take action. Arnu’s attorney, convinced they will never know, agrees that the incident is almost certainly related to Arnu’s Area 51-based website.
“I’ve been doing this for over 20 years,” Arnu said. “I’m reporting on things that go on at Area 51 that can be observed from public land. I am satisfying people’s curiosity about Area 51.”
Arnu said he has always been careful about what photos are published on his site, taking care not to cross lines that stray into restricted areas. He said he would happily remove any image that goes too far. The agents, Arnu said, refused to tell him if a particular photo on his site showed something it shouldn’t during his hours-long interrogation.
Whatever justification may exist in the search warrant has been redacted for national security reasons. Since the raid, officials from nearby Nellis Air Force Base have been pummeled with questions from the media about the incident. They’ve declined to comment, perhaps because, according to emails obtained by The Black Vault via the Freedom of Information Act, the public affairs office at Nellis was not notified about the search warrant in advance or told why the action was taken.
Arnu said any foreign spy who wanted to see what goes on inside Area 51 could get clearer images from publicly available satellite platforms than from Dreamland Resorts. He has, for his part, made it clear to his audience that he won’t be intimidated, jokingly declaring that Dreamland Resorts is now endorsed by the FBI and OSI. Still, Arnu says the repercussions of the raid are scary.
“They can tell something to a judge that you can’t know what it is—they can kick in your door, roust you out of bed, take your stuff,” he said. “They don’t have to charge you with anything, and they don’t even have to tell you what the crime was.”
Arnu’s attorney said the federal government has up to five years to decide if they will press charges. Until then, Dreamland Resorts and its owner remain in legal limbo.
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