Rocket launcher found in Tijuana drug raid
Anti-tank weapon is used by U.S. military in Iraq
By Marisa Taylor and Anna Cearley
STAFF WRITERS
February 5, 2004
Mexican agents are trying to figure out how a rocket launcher used by the U.S.
military wound up in a Tijuana house just a block from the U.S.-Mexico border
fence.
Agents used a search warrant to enter the house Tuesday and found the weapon
along with about a ton of marijuana. They already had discovered a truck packed
with 2 tons of marijuana in front of the house.
Officials with the Federal Agency of Investigation, Mexico's equivalent of the
FBI, began searching Colonia Rancho Escondido, a neighborhood in the eastern
section of the city, after receiving an anonymous tip that a drug shipment
would be arriving in Tijuana.
The weapon they found was identified as an AT-4 anti-tank rocket launcher,
which is being used in Iraq by the U.S. military. The lightweight,
shoulder-fired weapon is considered disposable because it can be fired only
once. It is capable of destroying a lightly armored vehicle.
Mexican officials notified several U.S. law enforcement agencies of the
discovery, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has
offered Mexico its assistance.
Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs
Enforcement in San Diego, said her agency was told the weapon could no longer
be used because it looked like it had been fired. Mexican officials said they
were still examining the weapon to be sure.
"Our understanding is that it's not a threat," Mack said. "Of course, we want
to find out how it got there. This is a military weapon and inactive as it is
we want to follow up on any leads."
Experts said they were concerned that the weapon, which appeared to be several
years old, could have been stolen from U.S. or foreign military stockpiles and
smuggled into Mexico as part of an arms-for-drugs deal.
"Maybe someone was badly snookered or they already used it," said Tim Lomperis,
a former U.S. Army intelligence officer. "I would also be worried about the
possibility that this could be an arms dealer showing off what these things can
do."
There have been reports of small rockets being sold by illegal arms merchants.
A U.S. official said the Tijuana-based Arellano Félix drug cartel is known to
occasionally use them.
In 2002, authorities discovered a cache of weapons, including a
shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, on a ranch east of Mexicali where the body of
a Baja California state police officer was found buried.
"We see AK-47s in the hands of drug traffickers all the time, but a (rocket)
launcher is a very rare find," said Michael Vigil, the special agent in charge
of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.
Mexico prohibits civilians from carrying guns and most other weapons except in
special circumstances, and arms violations of any sort can carry penalties more
severe than in the United States.
One Mexican federal official, who asked to remain anonymous, said Mexico is
awash in weapons smuggled in from the United States.
"It's a big problem that doesn't get enough attention," the official said.
AT-4s are not designed to shoot down aircraft. However, experts said such a
discovery raises obvious security concerns for both Mexico and the United
States.
"A light anti-tank weapon is a very serious weapon," Lomperis said. "It's like
what the Iraqi insurgency is using to knock out Humvees. You don't find this
type of weapon at a gun store."
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