Officers search a vehicle pulled over on the north side of Sixth Street near the intersection of Sixth Street and Lawrence Avenue on Wednesday. Authorities were rounding up suspects connected to a four-year investigation into marijuana trafficking.

Local residents reported seeing SWAT-style teams in Lawrence on Wednesday, as authorities were rounding up suspects related to a four-year federal investigation into high-grade marijuana trafficking, according to federal court records.

“Multiple arrests are being made in Johnson and Douglas counties today in connection with federal drug charges,” said Jim Cross, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom’s office.

According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court by Lawrence police Detective Mike McAtee, 25 people face conspiracy charges. Federal authorities accuse the defendants of conspiring to distribute, and possession with intent to distribute, 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana. McAtee was working with a Drug Enforcement Administration task force.

Grissom identified Wednesday night the eight charged Lawrence residents in the group as Los Rovell Dahda, 30; Roosevelt Rico Dahda, 30; Sadie Jolynn Brown, 25; David James Essman, 35; Mark Lee Romero, 31; Daniel Mark Sieber, 31; Chad Eugene Bauman, 33; and, Carey Lynn Willming, 36. If convicted, the defendants face 10 years to life in federal prison and a fine of up to $10 million.

Other defendants were listed as from the Kansas City area and across the country. According to McAtee’s complaint, which was unsealed Wednesday, a witness in the case in 2008 told officers Los Dahda had suppliers of marijuana and cocaine who were Mexican nationals living in the Kansas City area.

The drug task force joined with the Internal Revenue Service in 2011 to investigate the finances of Bauman, who owned a carpet cleaning business in rural Lawrence, the Dahda brothers and others associated with them. The investigation included wire taps authorized by U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia.

Witnesses say SWAT-style teams took at least two people in the case into custody Wednesday morning in Lawrence, as local officers assisted federal agents.

Lawrence resident Charles Gruber said he saw numerous Lawrence Police and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office vehicles and officers on Lawrence Avenue between Sixth Street and Mesa Way. He drove near the area about 9 a.m.

Gruber said he saw officers examining a white sedan in the area, and they took a man out of the car, placed him in handcuffs and set him inside a sheriff’s cruiser.

At 10:30 a.m. several sheriff’s officers and detectives were on property at the northwest corner of the intersection of Ninth and Pennsylvania streets. A neighbor in the area, who asked not to be identified, said about 10 a.m. he saw about 12 members of a SWAT-style team exit a vehicle and take one person into custody. He also said he heard two loud noises, like police had deployed a “flash-bang” device to divert attention before they entered the building.

Witnesses also reported seeing officers Wednesday at Ultimate Tan, 2449 Iowa, which is named in the complaint as owned by Carey Lynn Willming. The business was closed Wednesday evening.

According to the complaint, investigators suspect a bank account that was opened in 2011 for the business was started with drug proceeds, and officers believed it was set up to conceal drug proceeds and launder drug money.