Myrick suspects terrorists crossing U.S.-Mexico border

Congresswoman believes Hezbollah is in Mexico, wants task force to investigate.

By Barbara Barrett
Washington correspondent
Posted: Wednesday, Jun. 30, 2010


Rep. Sue Myrick will meet tonight with Charlotte's Muslim community.

WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick has asked Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano to step up investigations of terrorists who might be operating on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Myrick, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, wants Napolitano to convene a task force on the presence of Hezbollah in Mexico.

"I believe Hezbollah and the drug cartels may be operating as partners on our border," Myrick wrote to Napolitano, who is secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in a letter last week. "I believe we need to do more intelligence gathering on Hezbollah's presence on our border."

The task force, Myrick writes, would comprise U.S. and Mexican law enforcement and border patrol agents sharing information. She asks for both a public report and an intelligence report about Hezbollah's organization, activities and ties to gangs and drug cartels.

Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, declined to be interviewed for this article because of scheduling conflicts.

Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said Tuesday in a prepared statement that the agency will respond directly to Myrick about her request.

"At this time, DHS does not have any credible information on terrorist groups operating along the Southwest border," he said.

Chandler said the agency uses "an intelligence-driven, layered enforcement approach" to securing the border, and that it works with law enforcement agencies in other countries.

As evidence of Hezbollah's connection to the Latino Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 gang, Myrick's letter includes photographs of two prisoners' tattoos - one of which reads Hezbollah, the other of which, she wrote, is a Farsi translation of MS-13.

"We have typically seen tattoos in Arabic, but Farsi implies a Persian influence that can likely be traced back to Iran and its proxy army, Hezbollah," Myrick writes. "These tattoos in Farsi are almost always seen in connection with gang or drug cartel tattoos."

Myrick's request comes as drug-related violence in Mexico is in the news. President Felipe Calderon asked for the United States' continued cooperation in fighting violence during his recent trip to Washington.

Throughout Mexico, drug-related violence has cost some 23,000 lives since 2006.

It's known that Hezbollah is working in the western hemisphere, and intelligence officials have long monitored Hezbollah's drug-trafficking work in what's known as the tri-border region of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.

Myrick cites unnamed intelligence officials in her letter, and bases much of her information on a 2006 report from the Republican staff of a Homeland Security congressional subcommittee. The report warned of the threat from terrorist groups to the United States' southwestern border.

The report said about 250 illegal aliens were apprehended in 2005 from countries of special interest, or those countries which could export individuals who might harm the United States through terrorism. (There were an estimated 1.2 million undocumented immigrants apprehended that year.)

The committee also reported that members of Hezbollah already have crossed into the United States across its southwestern border. It pointed in part to the 2005 conviction of a man who had been smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border and was providing financial support to Hezbollah.

"A task force could explore all these issues," Myrick wrote. "It is vital we know what is happening on our border, especially as crime and violence continue to rise there and as terrorist plots and threats are increasing inside the United States."