FBI bulletin - terrorist plot at Texas border

Posted on Sat, Jul. 16, 2005
FBI bulletin outlines possible terrorist plot at Texas border

BY ALFREDO CORCHADO AND JASON TRAHAN

The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS - (KRT) - Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape
of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the
international boundary 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 downplayed 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 Espanol," and Ernesto Zatarin Beliz, also known as El Traca, a
reputed Mexican drug trafficker and member of the Zetas, the feared
enforcers of the notorious Gulf cartel.

"El Espanol 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 Cardenas 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 United
States.

According to the FBI memo, Traca was attempting to recruit a security
guard at a Mexican government explosives factory in Cuatro Cienegas,
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 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 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 Zatarin and said that El Espanol 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 Espanol, the
official said.

According to the March FBI bulletin, Mexican authorities arrested
Zatarin in September 2003 and found an arsenal of assault rifles in his
residence, described by Mexican authorities as a "bunker utilized by Los
Zetas." Zatarin 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 Sept. 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-Qaida 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.

Lugar said that 3,000 to 4,000 of the 119,000 non-Mexican immigrants
apprehended so far this year trying to cross illegally into the United
States were from "countries of interest" like Somalia, Pakistan, and
Saudi Arabia. That number is up from 75,371 for all of 2004 and is
expected to reach 148,000 by year's fiscal 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," 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 & Border Protection in Marfa, Texas.

But the intelligence bulletin noted that the alleged terror 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?" Hoffman said. "After September 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."

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(Dallas Morning News correspondent Michelle Mittelstadt in Washington
contributed to this report.)

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© 2005, The Dallas Morning News.

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