With assault weapons drawn, members of New Zealand’s elite anti-terror group rushed from a helicopter and stormed Kim Dotcom’s mansion. Another special squad arrived moments later by a helicopter. Police dogs and vans of additional law enforcement followed in a highly orchestrated raid that looked straight out of the movies — all to arrest one man on several non-violent charges.
This video from New Zealand’s 3NEWS shows the raid on Kim Dotcom’s mansion that took place earlier this year. It confirms earlier eyewitness accounts that police used extreme measures in apprehending Kim Dotcom, the over-the-top leader of the Megaupload empire. But the whole event was apparently an elaborate show of force and completely unnecessary.
The video also shows Kim Dotcom testifying in a three-day court hearing about what happened during the raid last January. He revealed on the stand that the FBI had already seized and locked-down Megaupload’s servers prior to the raid. This fact effectively invalidates the previous argument that the police needed to raid Dotcom’s compound to prevent him from deleting evidence against himself and his companies.
It’s hard to watch the video and not feel that the raid was extremely overdone. The only thing missing from the video is the Call of Duty soundtrack.