<a href=www.zwire.com>Herald News Staff June 01, 2003

SOMERSET -- Federal, state and local law enforcement personnel responded to the NRG Electric Generating Plant, 1606 Riverside Ave., the former Montaup Power Plant, early Saturday after a plant worker reported seeing three people dressed in scuba gear near the facility.

"An NRG employee told police that he spotted three scuba divers on a beach next to the northeast side of the plant," said Police Chief James M. Smith. "When he called to them, the three fled, leaving behind their scuba gear."

Somerset police responded and searched the area, but were unable to find anyone, Smith said.

A K-9 team from the Bristol County Sheriff’s Department was called to the scene.

The police dog "followed a scent along the shore to a nearby street," Smith said, adding that more diving gear was found along the way.

Since the divers were seen near a power plant, Smith explained, Massachusetts State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were notified. FBI agents and the State Police Bomb Disposal and Dive Team Units responded.

The Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team and U.S. Customs agents also responded.

"No explosives were found with the gear, and State Police divers checked a Polish registry coal ship docked at the plant," Smith stated.

The chief explained that the ship had arrived in Somerset from Venezuela, and it is suspected that the suspicious divers were there to retrieve drug canisters that may have been attached to the ship while it was in Venezuela.

"This is a known method of smuggling drugs," Smith said. U.S. Customs is handling the investigation.

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Name: Dr. Thunder Date: Jun, 02 2003 Drugs? Maybe... the ship passes Trinidad and Tobago on the way here, and T&T is a hotbed for Al-Quaeda controlled drug trade. However, I think these men were part of the revised Al-Quaeda initiative to cause mass casualties and disrupt the U.S. economy and infrastructure. These men were trained, informed, and there to do more than just collect a shipment of drugs. Three men just disappeared? Doesn't Somerset have sewer tunnels? Isn't there a lot of rental property down by the plant? I think the plant should buff up security measures. I think the U.S. should remember how vulnerable we are. www.cryptome.org   Name: John Q Date: Jun, 01 2003 I think with the heighted threats to infrastructure, maybe there should have been armed patroling going on around such a plant as that. What if it hadn't been smugglers as assumed and been a local terror plot to explode the gas facility on Bay St.? Had that been an armed guard or officer they could have averted a disaster in the making if it were terrorists.

By Nicole Fuller, The oston Globe Correspondent, 6/1/2003

SOMERSET - A coal ship from Venezuela that docked five days ago may have been used to smuggle illegal drugs into the country, according to federal and state investigators who yesterday scoured the area for three people spotted swimming near the vessel who fled after a local man called out to them.

The sighting of the three divers - who left behind a flo tation device, a wet suit top, air tanks, and flippers - triggered an early morning manhunt involving investigators from six law enforcement agencies.

US Customs agents yesterday questioned the ship's crew and searched the vessel.

Authorities were unsure if the three were crew members or US residents. As of yesterday afternoon, no drugs had been found, and the suspects were still at large.

According to Police Chief James M. Smith, at about midnight Friday an employee taking a break on the roof of the NRG Electric Generating Plant said he saw three people swimming in Taunton River by the northeast corner of the plant.

After the employee called out to them, police say, the divers responded in a language he did not recognize.

They then swam to the shore, leaving their scuba equipment on a rocky stretch of land, police said.

The employee, whom Smith declined to name, immediately called Somerset police.

A Bristol County Sheriff Department's K-9 unit was dispatched to the scene to assist Somerset police, as were investigators from the State Police Dive Team, the FBI, the US Navy's Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team, and US Customs.

A police scuba team searched the waters, and police dogs tracked a scent from the riverbank on to a grassy lot, then lost the trail at an abandoned house.

Investigators have ruled out terrorism, saying there was no indication of explosives.

They suspect that the divers were attempting to retrieve a drug canister attached to the hull of the ship.

Smith said sealed canisters attached to ships by rope ''is a known method of smuggling drugs.''

Investigators said they found no canisters, and believe the three divers may have escaped with one or more.

''We feel that was probably going on there,'' Smith said.

The ship is registered in Poland but arrived in Somerset from Venezuela with a shipment of coal.

This story ran on page B4 of the Boston Globe on 6/1/2003.

Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The National Guard (GN) Anti-Drugs Command has announced the seizure of 8 kilos of cocaine in the cargo area of Caracas (Simon Bolivar)  international airport at Maiquetia. 

GN Anti-Drugs command chief, General Jose Antonio Paez says 6 kilos were discovered in a suitcase with double lining to be placed on board KLM's evening flight to Amsterdam, conveniently dubbed the "Narco-Tulip Express." 

Paez reports that two Venezuela citizens (41 and 43 years old), thought to be owners of the suitcase, have been arrested in connection with the seizure. 

New sniffer dogs allegedly uncovered one kilo of cocaine hidden in 14 friendship envelopes destined for Hong Kong on board a Lufthansa flight and one kilo of cocaine hidden in 2 hard disks ready to be sent to Miami aboard a DHL cargo plane.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 By: David Coleman

Trinidadian author and investigator Daurius Figueira is scheduled to blow the gaff on Venezuelan trans-shipments of Colombian cocaine in a Trinidad radio broadcast scheduled for Sunday.  A specialist on narcotics investigations, Figueira says he has given key information to Trinidad & Tobago Special Branch police on how the drug shipments are controlled by his country's corrupt elites to fund a local cell of the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

In an interview with Newsday reporter Nalinee Seelal, Special Branch official Frank Diaz denied discussing details with Figueira and claimed that no reports had been forwarded to him, otherwise they would be thoroughly investigated.

Figueira, however, says that the Jamaat Al Muslimeen ... led by Imam Yasin Abu Bakr ... is not linked to Al Qaeda but that there are clear links with the Indo-Muslim community ... he claims that Al Qaeda members are not interested in toppling the T&T government but they concentrate on the drug trade, until assignments are shifted.

Figueira have preliminary details about the T&T branch of the Al Qaeda network at a crime conference saying that Al Qaeda is carrying out a thriving trade with drugs in T&T with the connivance of "some businessmen and politicians."   He said that Special Branch police had listened to what he had to say two months ago ... but they have not contacted him since then.

"I have a network of persons who carry out intelligence and information gathering operations in T&T but we don't know who is who since some of the most influential persons here are linked to Al Qaeda."

Figueira, who converted to Islam in 1990, claims that Al Qaeda members can be found in key offices throughout Trinidad, and their mission is to ensure that the large shipments of drugs from Venezuela and Colombia which pass through Trinidad & Tobago are chanelled to buyers ... "local Al Qaeda members are often visited by operatives from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, but they have not visited T&T since the 9/11 World Trade Centre bombings."

Darius Figueira says that Al Qaeda has recruited Trinidadians to go to Muslim countries for studies and that the terrorist network is also involved in the import of guns which are sold to criminal elements. He says that T&T has become a narco-democracy since nothing is being done to put a stop to the drug trade because Al Qaeda had penetrated all the key organizations in the country.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

A Venezuelan citizen is in a state of comma in Cancun, Mexico after several phials of heroin she had swallowed burst inside her stomach. Miriam Gonzalez de Gonzalez (39) is said to have been carrying 44 phials totaling a little more than half a kilo. The local police did not say how Gonzalez de Gonzalez reached Mexico and circumstances relating to her capture.

Aragua 5th Control Court Judge Zomalia Gutierrez has ordered the preventive arrest of Venezuelan lawyer, Felix Acuna for alleged complicity in drug-trafficking activities and obtaining illegal benefits at the cost of public administration.

The same judge has already ordered the arrest of Maracay Police Detective Branch (CICPC) Anti-Drugs Division chief, Alexander Herrera and agent, Francis Medina for their alleged role in exchanging 4.5 kilos of cocaine seized in a raid for maize bread powder.

The State Prosecutor had requested the arrests of Maracay CICPC laboratory chief, Roger Vidal Rios and agents: Valmore Andrade and Julio Ortega but the judge did not find enough evidence to warrant the arrest. Lawyer Felix Acuna had to be interned in a clinic after suffering a heart attack.

The National Guard (GN) Anti-Drugs Command says it has uncovered an ecstasy cartel operating in Venezuela. GN General Jose Antonio Paez Cabrera says the investigation started on May 16 when agents stationed at Caracas (Simon Bolivar) international airport at Maiquetia seized 593 tablets sent to the States via Venezuela's postal service (Ipostel).

"We didn't catch anyone and have mounted an operation ... last week the same person sent another packet containing the tablets to Michigan."

The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has joined the search for the narco-trafficking gang.