New\r\nMexico Police Stop Israelis With Suspicious Cargo<\/b>
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By Michael Shinabery
\r\nAlamogordo Daily News<\/p>\r\n
\r\nMonday, May 19, 2003<\/b> <\/p>\r\n
\r\nCLOUDCROFT — That they were speeding through the school zone first got his attention.
\r\nThat they had Israeli driver's licenses and expired passports made him suspicious.
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\r\nCloudcroft Police Chief Gene Green stopped the 2-ton van on Thursday, for speeding. Initially, Green thought the truck was commercial because of exterior markings. But when he found it was out of Chicago, he asked for documentation such as logs books and manifests.
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\r\n\"They said this is a U-Haul truck and handed me a rental agreement (for) in-town delivery only in Illinois, (which) had expired two days before,\" Green said.
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\r\nHe called for backup, and Otero County Sheriff's Deputy Billy Anders, who patrols the Sacramento Mountains, arrived, along with Capt. Norbert Sanchez and Det. Eddie Medrano.
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\r\n\"We got them out and started digging a little deeper,\" Green said, \"got permission to search the truck. They claimed they were hauling furniture from Austin to Chicago.\"
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\r\nWhen officers advised the men they were not exactly en route from one town to another, Green said the two men claimed they were Deming bound.
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\r\n\"But they couldn't give us an address in Deming they were going to,\" he said. \"Once we got into the truck, they had some junk furniture I wouldn't have given to Goodwill.\"
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\r\nAlso inside the vehicle were, Green said, \"50 boxes\" they claimed was a \"private\" delivery, but the men insisted they had no \"idea what was in them.\"
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\r\nAt that point, the officers called for drug-sniffing and bomb-sniffing dogs. The men were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U-Haul recovered the truck. Contents of the boxes remain unknown, pending investigation.<\/p>\r\n
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Washington\r\nPolice Seize Rental Truck With TNT Traces<\/b><\/p>\r\n
Monday, May 13, 2002<\/b><\/p>\r\n
By Carl Cameron<\/p>\r\n
A Budget truck was pulled over in Oak Harbor, Wash., last Tuesday near the\r\nWhidbey Island Naval Air Station and found to have traces of TNT on the\r\ngearshift and traces of RDX plastic explosive on the steering wheel, Fox News\r\nhas learned.<\/p>\r\n
Traces of explosives were also found on one of the truck's two occupants.<\/p>\r\n
The FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Alcohol,\r\nTobacco and Firearms, and local police are all investigating.<\/p>\r\n
Government officials said the roadside stop was so close to the naval air\r\nstation that military personnel took part in the initial arrest and naval\r\nintelligence has also been involved in the subsequent investigation.<\/p>\r\n
Shortly after midnight on May 7, federal officials say local police pulled\r\nthe vehicle over for speeding. Documents read to Fox News indicate that the\r\ndriver and passenger told local police they were delivering furniture from\r\nCalifornia but that authorities doubted the story because of the early morning\r\nhour.<\/p>\r\n
A bomb-sniffing dog first detected explosives on one of the men and inside\r\nthe truck. High-tech equipment was used later to confirm the presence of TNT and\r\nRDX plastic explosive.<\/p>\r\n
Documents read to Fox News indicate that both driver and passenger were\r\nIsraeli nationals. Investigators say a roadside check of the national database\r\nof immigration records indicated that one of the men had not entered the country\r\nlegally, and the other was in violation of his visa. Both men were taken into\r\ncustody for immigration violations.<\/p>\r\n
At 7:30 that morning local police were notified that the BATF and FBI had\r\ntested the truck and found traces of explosives on the steering wheel and gear\r\nshift.<\/p>\r\n
Officials say no other charges of been filed against the driver and passenger\r\nand an investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\r\n
Authorities say records for the Budget truck do not indicate any recent\r\nrental for the purposes of transporting explosives, which would require special\r\npermits.<\/p>\r\n
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Thanks\r\nDU<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Two conspicuously under-reported incidents involving Israeli Nationals in the past two weeks. ","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/05\/59086.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}