A reader called us early this morning to report a mass gathering police vehicles at the bottom of Friday Ridge Road, just east of Willow Creek and right near the Humboldt County/Trinity County border. The caller estimated that there were approximately 25 police units in all, representing the California Highway Patrol, the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office and others.

Calls to the Trinity County Sheriff’s office and the Weaverville office of the CHP this morning were fruitless. The people who answered the phones said they knew nothing of any big raids underway. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office assured us that neither they nor the Humboldt County Drug Task Force knew anything about it.

Then, just after noon, a LoCO reader in Salyer informed us that just such a convoy had descended on a location in that town with guns drawn. “I was mowing a lawn across the highway when I saw it happening,” he said. This reader — a LoCO-verified trusted source — said that there were definitely federal agents up in the mix, but that he could not be sure which agency they represented. He sent us the photos included here.

We’ll try to get more information when someone in Weaverville who can be expected to know what’s happening picks up the phone.