YOU'D THINK THE BORDER WALL WOULD HAVE STOPPED THEM:

"It's a very family-focused neighborhood," said Mary Benoit, a longtime Meadowoods resident. "Everybody has a dog." [...]

To a person, neighbors this week described the Braymans as a typical suburban family. They took their young child for walks and seemed to host friends and relatives regularly. The couple was private but friendly enough, saying hello and stopping occasionally to chat.

Local authorities did not appear to have a problem with the home; records show that police were never dispatched to the Braymans' address following their purchase of the home in summer 2019.

If the young couple stood out for anything, neighbors said, it was the barrage of packages that seemed to arrive, nonstop, at their home.

But as Amy Goodridge, who lives across the street and has spoken with them on occasion, acknowledged, "I'm guilty of that, too."

Suspicions about the goings-on at 30 Ellie Drive began to grow in early October, however, following an incident that quickly came to dominate neighborhood discussion.

Dunican, the Braymans' next door neighbor, was cleaning her son's room one afternoon, she told the Globe, when she looked out the window and saw what appeared to be nearly a dozen FBI vehicles surrounding the Braymans' home. For two hours, she said, agents scoured the home and property. A search warrant application, obtained by the Globe last month, shows that agents were seeking evidence tied to the alleged smuggling scheme.

The search quickly became the subject of neighborhood whispers, residents said. That speculation came into sharp focus only on Tuesday, when the indictment was unsealed.

According to authorities, at least some of the packages that piled up at the Braymans' doorstep were filled with sanctioned US items that experts say are commonly used in war.

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