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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (4385)	5/16/2002 10:20:34 AM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Border officials warned of theft of cyanide-filled truck By Elizabeth Pierson The Monitor McALLEN —Officials at points of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border have been warned to be on the lookout for a truck filled with 5,500 gallons of cyanide that was allegedly hijacked in the Mexican city of Hidalgo, a state representative said. Mexican and U.S. law-enforcement officials have no reason to believe the driver of the truck is headed north or that the driver plans to use the cyanide in an attack, said state Rep. Kino Flores, D-Mission, who is a member of two homeland securities committees, one for the state and one for the federal government. The Texas Department of Public Safety notified Flores and other members of the state committee and issued a bulletin to all points of entry along the border to be on the lookout for a 2002 brown Kenworth truck with a white tanker carrying the equivalent of 100 barrels, each 55 gallons, of cyanide, Flores said Tuesday. A Mexican trucking company owned the truck, Flores said. “It’s kind of just an FYI and an alert to all the points of entry to be on the lookout,” Flores said. The driver of the truck has not been found and the truck has not been seen since it was reported missing Friday from Hidalgo in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, near Mexico City, Flores said. “It’s probably stationary because it has not been detected on any of the major Mexican highways headed north,” Flores said. He said he has reason to believe that the person who stole the truck was more interested in selling its parts than in using the cyanide, which is extremely poisonous. “We just don’t know if it’s dangerous at this point, but we don’t want to take anything for granted,” he said. Javier Rios, a supervisory agent with the Border Patrol public affairs office, said his agents had not been alerted that they should watch specifically for that vehicle. He said the Border Patrol remains on its heightened level of alert, as it has been since Sept. 11. “We’ve heard of such a report, but we have no confirmation,” Rios said. “We get intelligence alerts almost on a daily basis, and we continue to be on our heightened security.” Rick Pauza, spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service in Laredo, would not say whether his agency received a warning about the truck, and would only say they continue to watch for suspicious activity. “We’re already at the highest level we can be at on a daily basis,” he said. themonitor.com