Thread: Concerns Terrorists Could Still Enter US from Mexico

Concerns Terrorists Could Still Enter US from Mexico
by Anthony L. Kimery
Tuesday, 09 March 2010

'Ability of people from countries of special interest to ... be ferried up to the border and ... into the United States … is … a concern'
Former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intelligence chief Steve Casteel told HSToday.us at a recent meeting of corporate security officials that a terrorist organization wanting to smuggle a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) into the United States is more likely to utilize an established drug trafficking or some other well-established organized crime organization to get the weapon into the country.

"If Al Qaeda wants to bring in a WMD, they're going to - the best way to do it - is to use organized crime ... right down here on [the US/Mexican] border," Casteel said. He added that Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda associated movements (AQAM) are becoming more intertwined with international organized crime networks.

A three decade DEA veteran who in the mid- to late-90s served as Associate Special Agent in Charge of DEA's Houston office where he was responsible for more than 1,200 miles of the Texas-Mexico border, Casteel candidly said it’s the southern border where terrorists could utilize Mexican traffickers’ smuggling expertise to bring a WMD into the US.

Casteel, now senior vice president for GardaWorld’s international business development, warned Congress about the nexus between terrorist organizations and global organized drug traffickers in his May 2003 testimony, "Narco-Terrorism: International Drug Trafficking and Terrorism - a Dangerous Mix,â€

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Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in response to questioning by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that terrorists could “potentiallyâ€