Pubdate: Sat, 04 Feb 2006
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2006 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: David McLEMORE, The Dallas Morning News

SEIZURE OF EXPLOSIVES NEAR LAREDO TAKES BORDER FEARS TO NEW LEVELS

Drug Cartels Cross Into Deadly Territory With Cache Found In Laredo

SAN ANTONIO - Customs investigators seized grenades, pipe bombs and 
material to make improvised explosive devices twice in the last week 
in Laredo, federal law enforcement agents said Friday, a sign that 
the violence among warring drug cartels continues to escalate along 
the U.S.-Mexico border. Laredo law enforcement officials called the 
weapons' discovery - which apparently marks the first time such 
explosives have been found in the city - a worrisome development.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Among the items seized: 
Automatic rifles, pipe bombs, grenades and materials for homemade 
bombs. "I'm very concerned about explosive devices that would cause 
major damage or injury," said Laredo Police Chief Agustin Dovalina 
III. "We're doing our best ... to keep the violence from spreading 
over to our side, the American side."

Julie Myers, head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau, 
said Friday that agents had seized "two improvised explosive devices 
and ... materials designed to make 33 more."

In a raid on a home in Laredo on Jan. 27, and another in Laredo on 
Thursday, agents found stacks of fully automatic rifles, 
military-style grenades, pipe bombs, gunpowder, drugs and homemade 
bombs similar to the IEDs used in Iraq. Some of the bombs were loaded 
with BBs and ball bearings. Don Carter, special agent-in-charge of 
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Houston, said the 
investigation of who made the bombs and for what purpose is just 
getting started. He noted, however, that discovery of the improvised 
explosive devices marks a significant change in the picture of drug 
violence along the border.

"We've not seen any explosive device used during the outbreak of 
violence in Nuevo Laredo, though Mexican federal police have made 
several raids in Nuevo Laredo where hand grenades were found," Mr. 
Carter said. "But these devices had the capacity to kill, and the 
success here is that we found them before they were used. None of us 
wants to go to the scene of an explosion." Al-Qaeda warning The 
announcement Friday comes on the same day that the Val Verde County 
chief deputy warned federal lawmakers meeting in Houston that drug 
traffickers are helping terrorists with possible al-Qaeda ties cross 
the Texas-Mexico border into the United States. An FBI spokeswoman in 
Houston could not immediately confirm his account.

Terry Simons, chief deputy in Val Verde County, is part of a group 
that has been pushing state and federal officials for more law 
enforcement funding on the border. And he mentioned the threat in a 
presentation to U.S. Reps. John Culberson, R-Houston, and James 
Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. Ms. Myers' announcement also follows a week in 
which Mexican and U.S. officials have challenged each other over 
so-called Mexican military incursions into the United States at the 
border near El Paso. Officials in Mexico announced Friday that they 
had identified the men responsible, although they are not in custody.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the Immigration, Border Security 
and Citizenship subcommittee, said Friday that he's "encouraged by 
the law enforcement professionals for their actions, and for 
potentially saving numerous American lives with this seizure."

"The weapons seized are a stark reminder of the vulnerability created 
by the federal government's failure to secure our borders," said Mr. 
Cornyn, R-Texas. "Texans are rightly concerned by the state of our 
borders and the potential means for a terrorist to exploit that 
vulnerability." As if to underscore the unpredictability of border 
violence, unidentified gunmen opened fire with assault rifles on a 
federal police convoy in Nuevo Laredo on Thursday as officers 
transported two suspects in an earlier shooting. Two police and one 
of the suspects were wounded. The daylight attack occurred just a 
block from the federal police headquarters. There have been four 
shooting deaths in four days in Nuevo Laredo. Officials recorded 22 
people killed by gunfire in the border city in January. The eruption 
of violence in Mexico has claimed hundreds of lives in the last year 
as a result of the bloody turf battle between two Mexican trafficking 
organizations, the Gulf Cartel and the Federation, that seek control 
over the lucrative network of smuggling routes, known as La Plaza, 
that runs through Nuevo Laredo into Texas.

The day before the seizures of the explosives, task force agents 
arrested a 30-year-old Laredo man after he sold a fully automatic 
weapon to an undercover ICE agent.

At his home, agents found what amounted to a firearms factory, with 
six kits to make fully automatic rifles, 20 assembled weapons, 
including AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles, and assorted pistols.

Agents also seized silencers, bulletproof vests, sniper scopes, 
police scanners, pin-hole cameras, 2,600 rounds of ammunition, and an 
unspecified amount of cocaine.

"Our intelligence and witnesses tell us that it appeared the weapons 
we seized were headed to Mexico, which does support the idea that 
this involves violence between the cartels," Ms. Myers said.

"Keeping explosives and other high-powered weaponry out of the hands 
of violent criminal organizations is a central focus" of the task 
force, she said. "As these seizures demonstrate, ICE is working day 
and night with its task force partners to stem the tide of violence 
that has been ravaging the border communities in South Texas in 
recent months." Task force successes The discovery of the bomb-making 
materials is an indication of the success of ICE's latest border 
initiative, the border enforcement security task force - or BEST.

The task force, made up of federal, state and local law enforcement 
agencies, was launched last July in Laredo as an intelligence-led 
attack on the leadership of the Mexican drug trafficking 
organizations responsible for the spike in violence along the border.

Task force investigations have led to the arrest of 28 suspects and 
the seizure of 36 assault rifles, 10 handguns, five silencers, a 
large quantity of weapons components and ammunition, as well as 700 
pounds of marijuana, 336 pounds of cocaine and about $1.1 million in 
cash. Three weeks ago, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff 
announced plans to expand the task force borderwide.

Ms. Myers' appearance in San Antonio on Friday marks her first press 
conference since her controversial appointment Jan. 4 as head of ICE. 
The niece of former Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Myers, Ms. 
Myers, 36, was the subject of congressional questions about her lack 
of law-enforcement experience after her nomination. President Bush 
bypassed a congressional vote with a recess appointment, prompting 
howls of protest and complaints of cronyism. Thursday, she brushed 
off the criticism, stressing that in her four weeks on the job, she's 
been very impressed with the agents under her command and that she is 
committed to working with them to target and take down the leaders of 
the drug cartels.

"The consequences of violence [are] felt on both sides of the border, 
and we're working very hard to end the violence and to make the 
nation safer," she said.
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