North Miami Beach police have arrested two people, calling them "suspected anarchists" who were possibly intent on wrecking havoc during free trade talks in Miami this month.

The men, whom police have not identified, were arrested Oct. 29 for loitering and prowling in a residential neighborhood.

Police said they arrested the men after receiving a phone call about a suspicious vehicle with California plates in the area well after 3 a.m.

Officers dispatched to the neighborhood spotted one of the suspects in back of a Starbucks coffee shop. The man took off running but the officers later caught him and another suspect as they were trying to get back into their truck, said North Miami Beach Police Sergeant Warren Hardison.

Hardison said neither of the men, who were from California, could explain what they were doing in the neighborhood.

Detectives later learned that the men may have accessed the coffee shop's roof through a ladder in back of the business, Hardison said.

Hardison said detectives have also learned that one suspect, a 17-year-old, had been arrested five days earlier for stealing from a department store.

The officer stopped the teen, who was with two adults, in the store parking lot. At the time, the officer noticed that their truck contained a garden hose and several gasoline cans but thought nothing of it.

Detectives suspect the men were anarchists who wanted to cause disruptions during free trade talks this month.

Hardison said the community should be wary of radical activists who might become violent to protest the upcoming Free Trade Area of the Americas. "The FTAA is just a few weeks away," Hardison said. "Some people are coming to peacefully make their point and protest but there are others who will try to disrupt the protests."

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