SECRET LOS ALAMOS PAPERS FOUND DURING DRUG SEARCH

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The authorities in northern New Mexico have
stumbled onto what appears to be classified information from Los
Alamos National Laboratory while arresting a man suspected of domestic
violence and dealing methamphetamine from his mobile home.

Sgt. Chuck Ney of the Los Alamos Police Department said the
information was found last Friday during a search of the man's records
for evidence of a drug business.

The police alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the secret
documents, which agents traced back to a woman linked to the man
suspected of drug dealing, officials said. The woman is a contract
employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said an F.B.I. official
who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official would say only that the documents appeared to contain
classified material and were stored on a computer file.

Bill Elwell, an F.B.I. special agent in Albuquerque, confirmed that a
search warrant was executed Friday night but refused to discuss details.

"We do have an investigation with regard to the matter, but our
standard is we do not discuss pending investigations," Mr. Elwell said.

The director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Michael R. Anastasio,
said Wednesday that he could not discuss the situation but that the
laboratory was cooperating with the F.B.I. "We intend to do everything
possible to guard against any criminal activity, particularly where a
breach of security may be involved," Dr. Anastasio said in a statement.

"We have already taken a number of steps to address potential security
risks," he said, but he gave no details.

Los Alamos has had a history of much-publicized security problems in
the past decade, with the most notable being the case of Wen Ho Lee,
the nuclear scientist who was charged with 59 counts of mishandling
sensitive information. After Dr. Lee pleaded guilty in 2000 to
mishandling computer files, the other charges were dismissed. He was
freed after nine months in solitary confinement, and a federal judge
apologized for the government's treatment of him.

In 2004, the laboratory was essentially shut down after an inventory
showed that two computer disks containing nuclear secrets were
missing. A year later the laboratory concluded that it was just a
mistake and that the disks never existed.

But the incident highlighted sloppy inventory control and security
failures at the nuclear weapons laboratory. And the Energy Department
began moving toward a five-year program to create a so-called diskless
environment at Los Alamos to prevent any classified material from
being carried outside the laboratory.

Even though Los Alamos is now under new management, Danielle Brian,
executive director of the watchdog group Project on Government
Oversight, said the laboratory had not done much to improve.

"Los Alamos has always seemed to be rewarded for its screw-ups," Ms.
Brian said. "We're waiting with bated breath to see if anything has
changed."

The idea that the police found classified documents at a home during a
drug case search is disturbing, she said.

"The problem is when you actually have those materials that are
supposed to be protected inside the lab and you find them outside the
lab in the hands of criminals -- that should worry everybody," Ms.
Brian said.

The F.B.I. and the United States attorney's office in Albuquerque are
"evaluating the information obtained as a result of the search
warrant," Mr. Elwell said.

The federal charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified
material is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in
prison and a $100,000 fine.