COPS in Wakefield issued a "shelter in place" order for residents in the area after heavily-armed members of the "Moorish" group prompted a tense stand-off with police.
On June 3, officials advised residents in Wakefield and nearby Reading to lock their doors as the men "are refusing to put down their weapons," police said.
Is there a shelter in place in Wakefield, Massachusetts?
The tense confrontation occurred on Interstate 95.
The highway was shut down between Lynnfield and Stoneham, with Massachusetts State Police asking drivers to avoid the area.
Nine men armed with rifles and handguns exited a vehicle during a stop along Route 128 and fled into a wooded area, according to the Wakefield police.
Understood to be members of "The Rise of The Moors – The Moorish American Arms," they were reportedly wearing tactical-style gear and carrying an assortment of pistols and rifles for "training."
The men "claimed to be from a group that does not recognize our laws," police in Wakefield said.
Authorities confirmed that the at-large members of the group posted a video to the YouTube account, Rise of the Moors, the morning of July 3.
One video shows several men wearing camouflage clothing declaring "we are not anti-government."
In another video, one of the members says, "We're not anti-police, we're not sovereign citizens. We're not black identity extremists.
"The possession of a gun per se, constitutes no offense, so we haven't violated any laws."
Have the group members been arrested?
As of 11am July 3, state police said all remaining suspects have been taken into custody.
A total of nine people have now been arrested
No injuries or shots were reported.
The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the Moorish sovereign citizen movement as a "collection of independent organizations and lone individuals" that "espouse an interpretation of sovereign doctrine that African Americans constitute an elite class within American society with special rights and privileges that convey on them a sovereign immunity placing them beyond federal and state authority."
"Members of the Moorish sovereigns, called Moors, have come into conflict with federal and state authorities over their refusal to obey laws and government regulations," according to the SPLC.
"Recently, Moorish sovereign citizens have engaged in violent confrontations with law enforcement."
In June, a Los Angeles man who identified himself as a Moorish sovereign was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, after locking himself inside a woman's home and declaring it his ancestral property.
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