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 News from Around the Americas | July 2005 
Memo Lists Possible Border Terror Plot
 Alfredo Corchado & Jason Trahan - The Dallas Morning News
| | Officials play down plan described in secret FBI bulletin. |
Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the border at dozens of improvised crossings. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle drugs and humans. Now there is growing concern they could become deadly conduits for terrorism.
The concern is buttressed by a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, that contains the vague outlines of a possible terrorist plot.
Officials from both sides of the border played down the possible threat but acknowledged that it is the sort of scenario they have to guard against. The prospect of terrorists crossing the southern border has been a rising concern among officials in Texas and Washington.
The plot, according to uncorroborated information provided by an FBI informant, involves a man, described as an Arab who goes by the nickname "El Español," and Ernesto Zatarín Beliz, also known as El Traca, suspected of being a Mexican drug trafficker and member of the Zetas, the feared enforcers of the notorious Gulf cartel.
"El Español is gathering truck drivers with knowledge of truck routes in the United States and explosive experts" in the state of Coahuila, according to the March 11 memo, which originated in the San Diego FBI office and was made available by a U.S. attorney's office. The informant "believes that the activity in Coahuila, Mexico, is terrorist related."
In exchange for the Zetas' help in recruiting drivers, the memo says, the Arab – who barely speaks Spanish – promised to help them fund and execute a plan to free Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas from prison. The Gulf cartel is embroiled in a bloody turf war with rival traffickers for control of Nuevo Laredo, a key drug smuggling route into the U.S.
According to the FBI memo, El Traca was attempting to recruit a security guard at a Mexican government explosives factory in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, to assist with the Arab's plan. The region is known for producing nitric acid and ammonium nitrate, materials that are used for industrial and agricultural purposes and can also be ingredients for explosives.
The informant has "provided reliable narcotics intelligence in the past," the bulletin says, but it adds that the informant also flunked two polygraph tests.
The San Diego FBI analyst who wrote the document declined to comment. The division's spokeswoman said publication of such sensitive information would undermine the bureau's mission.
"We are trying to protect national security," said Special Agent Jan Caldwell. "We can't do that when things like this are put in newspapers."
A senior Mexican intelligence official said the information in the memo had not been corroborated.
"The informant paved a road that led nowhere," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He added that Mexican federal agents spent "literally weeks chasing down the information, only to come up empty-handed."
However, the Mexican intelligence official confirmed the identity of El Traca as Mr. Zatarín and said El Español was a known human trafficker, specializing in smuggling Middle Easterners and South Americans, particularly Brazilians and Paraguayans.
Mexican authorities have been unable to track down El Español, the official said.
According to the March FBI bulletin, Mexican authorities arrested Mr. Zatarín in September 2003 and found an arsenal of assault rifles in his residence, described by Mexican authorities as a "bunker utilized by Los Zetas." Mr. Zatarín later escaped, however, and his picture and name are now on a poster listing Mexico's most-wanted criminals.
"FBI intelligence indicates that Los Zetas are becoming increasingly involved in systematic corruption as well as alien smuggling ... [including] special interest aliens to the U.S.," the bulletin concludes.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration and members of Congress from both parties have viewed the southern border as a weak link in efforts to keep terrorists out of the United States, even though the 9-11 terrorists entered the country with visas, some legal, others forged.
"That's been the concern all along, that there would be a bargain struck between al-Qaeda or some [other] terrorist organization and these organized crime networks that would allow terrorists to be smuggled into the country," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in an interview. "I think that's a very real concern."
At a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said: "Given the threat of international terrorism, there is great concern that our land borders could also serve as a channel for international terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. The threat of terrorist penetration is particularly acute along our southern border."
Senior U.S. officials added that other criminal groups such as the Mara Salvatrucha – the Central American gang that has moved into several U.S. cities and has a growing presence along the U.S.-Mexico border – also are a top concern for U.S. authorities.
Mr. Lugar said 3,000 to 4,000 of the 119,000 non-Mexican immigrants apprehended so far this year trying to cross illegally into the U.S. were from "countries of interest" such as Somalia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. That number is up from 75,371 for all of 2004 and is expected to reach 148,000 by fiscal year's end.
Adm. James Loy, former Homeland Security deputy secretary, declined to comment on the specific plot outlined in the FBI memo, but earlier this year he suggested that such a threat is real.
"Entrenched human-smuggling networks and corruption in areas beyond our borders can be exploited by terrorist organizations," Mr. Loy said in written testimony at a congressional hearing in February. "Several al-Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons."
But law enforcement officials discounted the suggestion that terrorists would use the rugged Big Bend area to transport explosives – especially in a tractor-trailer that would glaringly stand out.
"I think there would be easier ways to get explosives inside the United States,"said Benjamine Carry Huffman, assistant chief patrol agent for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Marfa. He pointed out that Interstate 10 is a two-hour drive from the border area of Presidio but that there was immediate access to it in El Paso.
But the intelligence bulletin noted that the alleged terrorist plot, as relayed by the informant, was still a work in progress, leaving open the possibility that less conspicuous vehicles might be employed. And the FBI memo said that "one possible smuggling route Traca wanted to use was through Big Bend National Park."
The border patrol's Marfa sector is its largest, covering 510 miles of border with Mexico, including part of Big Bend National Park, and bordering the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila. With some 200 agents, it has the smallest force of any sector along the Mexican border, according to Bill Brooks, the sector spokesman.
Much of the area is desert and mountainous terrain, dotted by at least a dozen informal crossings known as Class B ports of entry. These consist of makeshift bridges capable of carrying foot and some lighter vehicle traffic. Authorities tried to seal them off after Sept. 11, 2001, but several have been re-established. Officials acknowledged that agents cannot regularly police the informal crossings.
"Who ever imagined that terrorists would use passenger planes to crash into tall buildings?" Mr. Hoffman said. "After Sept. 11, we have to operate on a different mindset, one in which we take absolutely nothing for granted. Is it possible terrorists can come across this border with explosives or a dirty bomb? Absolutely."
Staff writer Michelle Mittelstadt in Washington contributed to this report. |
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