Dunno what to make of thisBy Chris Covert
The Mexican naval agency, Secretaria Marino (SEMAR), issued a denial Wednesday that documents posted on a drug war website were authentic.
Without specifically identifying Bordelandbeat.com, SEMAR in its statement said the posted documents contained markers and other criteria that were not of the type used by Mexican federal government agencies.
Borderlandbeat.com posted documents last week it claimed were from an anonymous source, but stating the documents were authentic.
Acting on intelligence provided by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the documents describe a Mexican naval counterterror operation that took place in June 10th, 2010, when Mexican marine operatives raided a villa in Roma colony in Mexico city arresting four individuals and seizing a reported 22 kilograms of explosives already compiled into a bomb.
The report also mentioned an individual identified as Ahmed Saleem or Salim, who was said to be a Somali national terrorist suspect who had migrated to Mexico through Guatemala. Saleem had been staying at a nearby hotel when the raid took place, but was not detained, and is presumably still at large.
The report also said the Mexican naval intelligence had information that the target was to be the US embassy in Mexico City, although the information was not obtained at the villa. The report said that much of the information they had were provided by Israeli intelligence.
According to a story by a Milenio weekly publication, Marine operatives seized a number of items from the villa including 20 kilos of nitric acid, glycerin and paraffin, material that could be used to make candles, a Milenio report detailed. The contention that bomb making materials, not bombs were found is critical, as at the time a Mexican legal official denied explosives were found.
The purported Mexican naval intelligence document however said that a number of items were found including a bomb:
- One cylinder shaped cardboard container holding 22.7 kilograms of high explosives and sealed with a paraffin compound. Two copper cables sheathed in plastic were inserted into the paraffin.
- One orange colored thick fabric suitcase containing two Motorola brand c115 cellphones without batteries.
- Four Motorola brand multichannel radios with chargers.
- One Radioshack brand frequency counter.
- Latex gloves.
- One dark green notebook with Arabic and Spanish writing.
- One small prayer rug with Islamic motifs.
- One bar of body soap.
- One toothbrush.
- One sealed box of toothpaste.
- One liter of nitric acid.
- Five liters of pure glycerin.
- One plastic bag containing 5 fuses (3 slow burn and 3 rapid burn).
- One kilogram of gunpowder containing aluminum.
- 10 meters of yellow/red colored detonation cord.
- 150 grams of mercury.
The report failed to detail the type of explosive found in the bomb component, although it is possible that the explosive to be used was in fact gunpowder.
Despite their great wealth, influence, power and ability to corrupt, Mexican cartels apparently do not have a reliable source of military grade or even high explosives save for commercial grade dynamite, such as Tovex, which is used by mining companies in the Mexican sierras and by PEMEX, and gunpowder compiled from fireworks, which Mexico does have a lot of.
One of the issues in the Borderlandbeat.com report on the documents and SEMAR's response is that Mexican cartels are assisting foreign Islamic terrorist groups outside the US in smuggling their operatives into the US and in assisting them in gaining materials, such as documents needed to function in secret in Mexico.
Borderlandbeat.com does note in its report that SEMAR denies the document's authenticity, not their existence. The website also claimed in its update to the documents story that they attempted to gain contact with Mexican officials without avail.
Mexican official rarely, if ever respond to press queries over the transom.
I know. I've tried.