Authorities make a second wave of arrests in connection with LulzSec and Anonymous. (Neon Tommy archive)

The raids spanned the nation, with search warrants being executed for homes in California, Florida, New York and New Jersey. A laptop was seized from one of the New Jersey locations.

An FBI spokesperson said the sweep was part of an ongoing investigation into Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for widespread Internet attacks, first surfaced in December when it forced crashes on the websites of Visa and Mastercard after the companies withdrew support from WikiLeaks and its creator Julian Assange.

Since then, Anonymous has spearheaded attacks internationally on the likes of PayPal, the Arizona Police Department, and most recently joined fellow hackers LulzSec to wage war against disgraced News of the World heads Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks.

It remains unclear whether LulzSec and Anonymous work together. Several members of LulzSec, many of whom are teenagers, were arrested earlier this month in Europe.

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