FBI agents chainsaw through mother's front door and hold her at gunpoint for 30 minutes after raiding WRONG apartment

• Judy Sanchez held face down on floor after agents stormed her home


• But they soon realised they should been next door
  

By Lee Moran

Last updated at 3:53 PM on 2nd February 2012

Bungling FBI agents held a terrified mother at gunpoint for 30 minutes after chainsawing their way into her home - before realising they had raided the wrong address.

Officers stormed into Judy Sanchez's Fitchburg, Massachusetts, apartment at 6.04am on January 26 after using the blade to cut through her front door. The 29-year-old was then held face down on the floor as her three-year-old daughter Ji-anni cried in another room.

But the red-faced agents soon let her go after realising they were supposed to have targeted the home of an alleged drug dealer which was on the same floor of the building.

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Bungled raid: FBI agents held terrified mother Judy Sanchez at gunpoint for 30 minutes after chainsawing their way into her home - before realising they were at the wrong address

Smashed: Judy Sanchez walked into her kitchen to see a chainsaw powering its way through her front door

Sanchez, who now sleeps with a baseball bat by the side of her bed, said she heard heavy footsteps in the stairwell as she walked into her kitchen.

She said: 'I just happened to glance over and saw this huge chainsaw ripping down the side of my door. And I was freaking out. I didn't know what was going on.'

She said the door was kicked open, adding: 'That's when I heard the clicking of a gun and I heard 'FBI, get down!', so I laid right on down.

'And they said get your dog, so I got her and at the same time I am laying in her urine because she did pee on herself at the same time.'

She said the agents told her not to move and so was unable to help her daughter, who was screaming for help in the room next door.

Soon enough, though, they realised their mistake and moved in on her neighbour Luis R Vasquez, who uses the street name Joker.

Devastated: Judy Sanchez (left) said her young daughter Ji-anni (right) was left alone as she was forced to lie face down on the floor

Wrong place: FBI agents targeted the apartment of a mother, rather than that of an alleged drug dealer

The 41-year-old was later arrested and charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine base.

An FBI spokesman in Boston said the agency would pay for the damage caused to her home.

He said the arrest team was only in the wrong apartment for about 15 minutes, and that the special agent in charge at the scene repeatedly apologised for the mistake.

But Sanchez said she remained unhappy. She told The Sentinel and Enterprise of Fitchburg: 'Just a little pat on the back and saying 'I'm sorry' is not OK.'

'For me it felt (like a) routine apology, it felt like just a regular, 'I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

'Here's the phone number for your landlord to get reimbursed for the door, have a good day. And that's how I felt, like it was a smack in the face.'

The botched raid was part of a two-year probe by federal and state authorities into illegal gun sales, drug trafficking and gang activities they dubbed Operation Red Wolf.

The raids resulted in the arrest that day of 16 people in the Fitchburg area for drug offences.

Source : dailymail

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