FBI Probe’s Nerve Center Apparently Closing : Investigation: Neighbors had long wondered about warehouse that played a part in activities of group now accused of plotting against racial minorities.

NEWPORT BEACH —  For more than seven months, the warehouse with a limestone facade in an industrial park had served as a “training center” for young white supremacists.

But by Monday afternoon, after being exposed as a key site in the FBI’s covert investigation into suspected racist hate groups, there were signs that the operation’s nerve center was being dismantled.

Stripped away were the threatening door signs that until early Monday had warned uninvited visitors that they would be shot and killed if they tried to enter the premises.

From the outside, men who refused to identify themselves could be heard moving objects around, and one man repeatedly emptied a trash can into a locked dumpster just outside the warehouse door. From time to time, automobiles and a van rapidly entered and exited the rented warehouse.

The two men who were known to neighbors as the tenants had not been seen for several days, even though the lights to one of the front offices were on and a white Corvette driven by one of those believed to have acted as FBI informants, the Rev. Joe Allen of the Church of the Creator, had suddenly reappeared.

Two adjacent units in a warehouse area of Newport Beach are believed to have been used by federal agents and informants to gather evidence against white supremacists arrested last week for allegedly plotting to kill Rodney G. King and commit other acts of violence against minorities, including members of the First AME Church in South-Central Los Angeles and leaders of the Jewish community in Orange County.

White supremacists who were befriended by Allen said he used the location as a “training center” for members of their movement.

The secretiveness of Monday’s operation was, if nothing else, amusing to some of the neighbors who had watched the suspicious activities there for several months.

Once puzzled by the activities there--the trash bin with a lock, the video surveillance that the occupants boasted of having, vehicles zipping in and out of the two warehouse units through electrically opened doors--everything now made sense to neighbors.

They said they did not know at first that the fictitious business operation was being sponsored by federal agents. But they had figured that anyone trying to conduct criminal activities probably wouldn’t have unloaded military equipment, including rifles, at the warehouse in broad daylight and posted threatening warning signs on their doors.

“That’s what made it weird. . . . These guys were trying hard to make it look like they were doing something illegal,” said one neighbor who asked for anonymity.

An FBI spokesman said later that he could not comment and had no knowledge of the warehouse.

Two men--one known as Joe Allen--had moved to the warehouse complex at the end of 1992.

It was then that neighbors said they noticed an unusual collection of materials being brought into the warehouse--rifles, camouflage clothing, weightlifting equipment, camping gear, hunting trophies, a water heater, washer and dryer.

If they had wanted to be caught, they could not have tried harder because of the commotion that they caused when first moving in, the workers said.

Except for Allen and his partner, the only other visitors they saw were “the suits”--men in business suits driving what they surmised were government-issue sedans.

In the following months, as they kept their eye on the business, they would laugh at stories about deliverymen being spooked by the secretiveness of the supposed hide-out.

Another neighboring business manager, Frank Collet, said he was most intrigued by the automatic doors that opened at the sound of a car horn, since no one else in the complex had them. “They drive right up and the door opens. As soon as it’s an inch above the car, they are in,” Collet said.

He had also seen the guns, as well as dark silhouettes commonly used for target practice. “We have all been kind of wondering what they did in there,” Collet said.

The man suspected of being the FBI’s principal informant had told neighbors of various occupations, ranging from being a big-game hunting guide to having an investment firm. The weightlifting equipment was used by his nephew for personal training, he told his next-door neighbor, Craig Moreland.

“I said, ‘So this is sort of like a big game/boys club.’ And he said, ‘Yeah,’ ” Moreland said, adding that his curiosity had not been satisfied. “Why would somebody pay whatever they were paying in rent . . . for one guy to park a car inside?” Moreland wondered.

The real estate agent who helped lease the space said that in recent months neighbors had asked about the tenant because of the signs on the door, including one which stated in English and Spanish: “If you come through this door, you will be killed.”

“Something is weird when you see a sign like that on the door. I wouldn’t go in there,” said Patrick Lacey, the real estate agent.