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Despite denials, rumors of al Qaeda ties linger
Some say MS-13 could provide border access.
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, January 22, 2006

Could al Qaeda terrorist operatives be teaming up with the MS-13 gang?

No, federal investigators say. There is little, if any, evidence of such a link, and it is highly unlikely that the radical Muslim organization would align itself with a predominately Catholic gang, they say.

In September 2004, The Washington Times reported that a top al Qaeda lieutenant, Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, had been spotted two months earlier meeting at a Tegucigalpa, Honduras, cafe with MS-13 leaders.

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft confirmed that the meeting was being investigated.

Shukrijumah, a cell leader for whom the United States has offered a $5 million reward, is a former South Florida resident and pilot who federal officials thought helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks. He was among seven al Qaeda suspects publicly identified by Ashcroft as being involved in planning for new attacks.

In 2004, U.S. authorities suspected that the Saudi-born Shukrijuman had sought meetings with MS-13 leaders who they said control immigrant smuggling routes into the United States through Mexico.

Ashcroft later confirmed that Shukrijumah had attempted to acquire radioactive material for the production and smuggling of a "dirty bomb" into the U.S.

Federal officials subsequently downplayed and then refuted the reports about the Honduran meeting.

In February 2005, a U.S. diplomat in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, renewed concern that al Qaeda and MS-13 might be working together. Consul John Naland's comments came after the arrest of an MS-13 member in Matamoros who was accused of trying to smuggle three immigrants into the United States and a week after federal officials confirmed the arrest of Ebner Anibal Rivera-Paz, the reputed head of the Honduran MS-13 organization outside Falfurrias, north of McAllen.

MS-13 "might be just the kind of group which would take money to smuggle an honest-to-goodness terrorist into the United States," Naland said.