The Austin American Statesman - Terrorists might exploit drug cartels for U.S. entry, McCaul says

Terrorists might exploit drug cartels for U.S. entry, McCaul says

Congressman fears that weapons of mass destruction could be smuggled in.
By Tara Copp, as printed in the Austin American Statesman

WASHINGTON — Mexican drug cartels are strengthening and pose a risk that terrorists will exploit them to smuggle weapons of mass destruction across the U.S. border, according to a new report by Rep. Michael McCaul, of Austin.

In his report, McCaul highlighted recent capture reports along the Mexican border that worry him: the discovery in South Texas' Jim Hogg County of a jacket with patches depicting Arabic military badges, planes heading to a tower and the word "martyr," the capture of a Hezbollah operative who bribed his way into Mexico and was smuggled across the border and the discovery of Iraqis in Brownsville this summer, among other detentions.

McCaul said he's worried that terrorists will exploit the cartels' drug routes to ferry themselves and weapons into the U.S.

"Cartels have delivery routes for everything," said McCaul, who is chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations. "What keeps me up at night is a weapon of mass destruction coming across."

Gerald Epstein, a homeland security senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the report makes clear that there are issues for concern along the border but that it's not clear how significant this threat is compared with others, such as Europeans from terror cells overseas obtaining U.S. visas.

http://www.house.gov/list/press/tx10_mccaul/morenews/10_17_06_BorRep_AAS.html