The ATF tipped off the local press to the raid. On the morning of February 28, the ATF traveled from the military encampment at Ft. Hood in a huge caravan. They traveled to the staging area, the Bellmead Civic Center, in an approximately 80-vehicle convoy with a cattle trailer at each end. All the vehicles had their headlights on.
Agents report that, once underway, the convoy stretched at least a mile.
An ATF agent wearing an ATF raid jacket and local police were in the street in front of the civic center directing the convoy into the parking lot. A supervisor become concerned about the visibility of the agents, many of whom wore ATF insignia or were otherwise unmistakably law enforcement personnel. He ordered everyone to go inside and remain in the civic center. The ATF arrived at the Mt. Carmel Center in noisy cattle cars. The noisy cattle cars had to go across a pothole-scarred gravel road outside the Center.