New York (CNN) -- Authorities searched several locations in the Northeast on Thursday in the investigation of the failed Times Square car bombing, an FBI spokeswoman said.
Investigators were searching locations in and around Boston, Massachusetts, and in New York and New Jersey, a federal law enforcement source said.
Gail Marcinkiewicz, an FBI spokeswoman in Boston, said the searches "do not relate to any known immediate threat to the public or any plot against the United States".
The Justice Department released a statement saying that Thursday's searches "are the product of evidence that has been gathered in the investigation subsequent to the attempted Times Square bombing".
During the searches, officials detained two people for "alleged immigration violations," Marcinkiewicz said. The two have no direct connection to the Times Square bombing investigation, and their arrests were considered "collateral," a second federal law enforcement source said.
One of the searches unfolded in Brookline, Massachusetts, where police were helping the FBI search a Mobil gas station on Harvard Street, said Lt. Philip Harrington of the Brookline Police Department.
Video from CNN affiliate WHDH-TV of Boston showed apparent law-enforcement officers at the gas station. They were examining a parked gray four-door sedan, its two front doors and trunk open.
Diane Chung, who manages a Japanese fusion restaurant across from the gas station, said investigators were swarming the scene when she got to the restaurant around 9:30 a.m. She said the gas station was completely blocked off.
She said she hadn't seen authorities bringing anyone out of the gas station and hasn't seen them enter any other businesses in the area.
Photos from the website WickedLocal.com showed a raid in Watertown, Massachusetts. A two-story Colonial-style house was surrounded by yellow police tape, with FBI agents and Watertown police on the scene. An officer carried a plastic bag, apparently containing electronic equipment, out of the house.
Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani American, is the only person charged in the May 1 attempted bombing at Times Square.
He was arrested while trying to fly out of New York two days after he allegedly attempted to set off a car bomb in the always-crowded tourist hotspot. The bomb failed to detonate.
Shahzad has been charged with five counts in connection with the case.
According to court documents, he admitted to law enforcement officials that he attempted to detonate the bomb and that he recently received bomb-making training in the Waziristan region of Pakistan.
Court documents also said that Shahzad returned to the United States via a one-way ticket from Pakistan on February 3. He had told immigration officials upon his return that he had been visiting his parents in Pakistan for the previous five months, the complaint said.
Attorney General Eric Holder said Shahzad was working with the Pakistani Taliban.
CNN
