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.