By DAVID JOHNSTON

          WASHINGTON, April 27 -- Commanders of the raid that
          reunited Elián González with his father went into the home of his
          Miami relatives with automatic weapons early last Saturday because
          intelligence reports indicated that the house was being guarded by a
          shadowy network of men who had permits to carry concealed weapons,
          a history of violent crime or a record of anti-Castro violence, one of the
          officers said today.

          A senior immigration official in charge of intelligence gathering for the operation said
          it was the information suggesting the possibility of violence that led the authorities
          to plan a large military-style raid with about 140 agents, a few armed with automatic
          weapons.

          "There was a structure and the potential of violent threats to prevent us
          from recovering Elián from the house and perhaps do serious harm to our
          personnel and maybe innocent people in the area," the official said.
          "That's really why we structured the enforcement plan to be, by any
          objective standard, an overwhelming show of force to prevent the use of
          force."

          The official said there were several reports of an unidentified person at
          the house who was observed with a firearm but no reports of weapons in
          the house. Attorney General Janet Reno has said there were reports of
          weapons inside the house.

          There was no immediate comment on firearms tonight from a spokesman
          for the family, though the family has always insisted it had none in the
          house and none were confiscated in the raid.

          The intelligence operation uncovered what the official said was a plan to
          thwart any effort to remove Elián from the González home forcibly by
          rushing him to the house directly behind the González's if the authorities
          tried to break in. That house was headquarters for the Cuban-American
          security operation in the Little Havana neighborhood, the official said.

          The intelligence operation relied largely on covert surveillance, overflights
          of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, the official said, speaking on
          condition of not being named. The information was cross-checked with
          law enforcement and commercial databases to provide a profile of the
          loose network of security personnel around the child in the days before
          the raid.

          The official said agents detected several layers in what he described as a
          security cordon around the house of Lázaro González, where Elián was
          staying after he was rescued from the Atlantic on Nov. 25. The security
          operation extended to the streets surrounding the house, where, the
          official said, supporters in lawn chairs took positions at strategic
          intersections and used walkie-talkies and cell phones to report law
          enforcement activity.

          The official said the reports were transmitted to supporters of the Miami
          relatives at a house on the same block as the González home. The
          reports, he said, were relayed to local Spanish-speaking radio stations,
          which sometimes broadcast appeals to Cuban-Americans to crowd the
          streets around the house.

          The official said agents identified five people who seemed to operate as
          what he called "close quarters bodyguards" who were at the González
          house at varying times. Four of the five people, the official said, were
          identified, and all four had active permits to carry concealed weapons.

          Although the González family seemed to know and allow some members
          of the security force into their home, the official said, it was unclear
          whether the Miami relatives played a significant role in organizing or
          managing the network of Cuban-American supporters.

          The official said the leaders of the security force occupied the house
          behind the González home. This was what he described as a base of
          operations for a larger group of 15 to 20 people who set up roving
          patrols on foot, bicycles and cars.

          Among this group were nine people whom the official said had criminal
          records for violent crimes.

          "These people had essentially taken it on their own to prevent the
          removal of Elián from the González home," the official said.

          In addition, the official said, five members of the militant anti-Castro
          group Alpha 66 were seen on several occasions in the crowd of
          demonstrators. He said three of the five had taken credit for firing from a
          boat into a seaside hotel in Cuba in 1995.

          Immigration officials said they coordinated their intelligence gathering with
          other federal agencies and with Miami police. But the officials said they
          did not coordinate the raid with the local authorities who, except for a
          few senior commanders, did not know how or when the operation was
          to take place.

          Although several Cuban citizens in the security operation were detained
          in the days before the assault, the official said, the intelligence collection
          effort did not result in arrests or searches for weapons. That was because
          the operation to take custody of the child was focused solely on that
          goal, the official said, and was not viewed as broader law enforcement
          action.

          The operation took place shortly after 5 a.m. on Saturday after
          negotiations that Ms. Reno had said stalled over the relatives'
          unwillingness to surrender the child unconditionally to the authorities after
          months of refusing to hand over the boy.

          Lawyers for the relatives have complained that they were pleading for
          more time to negotiate a peaceful transfer at nearly the exact time that
          Ms. Reno sent the agents to the house and have bitterly criticized her for
          undertaking the assault without giving the talks more time.

          Republicans in Congress are planning hearings to review the operation.
          Some lawmakers have sharply criticized Ms. Reno for sending in agents
          outfitted in military-style jump suits who carried automatic weapons in an
          operation that they said was likely to provoke violence and terrorize the
          boy.

          Justice Department lawyers have not allowed the agents who planned
          and carried out the assault to be interviewed until today, in part because
          they were assembling an after-action report and reviewing each agent's
          account in anticipation of civil lawsuits and Congressional inquiries.