Mexico Detains 18 as Possible Terrorists Trying to Enter U.S.

DEL RIO, Tex. —  Eighteen people from Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, who fit the profile of possible Middle Eastern terrorists and were trying to enter the United States, have been arrested in Mexico, U.S. authorities said.

Seventeen of the 18 are on their way to Mexico City for deportation after their arrests Monday at a hotel in Sabinas, Mexico, about 90 miles south of the U.S. border, said Jerry Goodman, associate chief of the U.S. Border Patrol here. The leader of the group was hospitalized in Piedras Negras.

The group, reportedly including three women, consisted of 11 Lebanese, six Syrians and one Turk, Goodman said. “They were trying to make arrangements to be smuggled into the United States,” he added. “I would consider them suspects until you could prove to me they were not suspects.”

The 18 arrived June 14 in Mexico City for the World Cup soccer championships, Goodman said. On June 17, they went to the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara and applied for visas, but were denied, he said.

U.S. authorities told Mexican officials about the attempted border crossing, and Mexican authorities made the arrests, he said.

U.S. authorities have distributed profiles of potential terrorists and have alerted border checkpoints to be alert for possible retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid on Libya in April.

Most of those arrested fit the profile, Goodman said, in that they were young Arabs--between 18 and 35 years old--and were well dressed, well educated and had no apparent business where they were found.