Thread: Federal Investigators Probe High-Tech Explosives Theft

Federal Investigators Probe High-Tech Explosives Theft


Dec. 19, 2005 — About 400 pounds of explosive material was stolen from a research facility in New Mexico, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed today.

The theft was discovered Sunday night by local authorities.

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ATF agents are investigating the large theft from Cherry Enginering, a company owned by Chris Cherry, for decades the senior explosives scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

Also, 2,500 detonators were missing from a storage explosive container, or magazine, in the name of Cherry Engineering.

The theft is one of the largest reported cases from a facility in the United States in the last decade ending 2004. During that time, a total of about 1,000 pounds was reported stolen from government facilities in 14 reported incidents. It is unknown whether there is any connection to terrorism.

A special agent at ATF said the incident was unusual because such high-powered material was targeted.

One hundred and fifty pounds of the plastic explosive compound C-4 and 250 pounds of undetectable "sheet explosives" — a DuPont flexible explosive material that can be hidden in books and letters — were stolen in the burglary, which also included the theft of blasting caps.

Burglars used a torch bar to break into the explosives containers and remove the material.

The missing material could potentially make numerous bombs.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1421579

Disturbing. But there's more of this going on than ever hits the news. For those who don't normally work the issue, take a look at this:

GAO Report: Thefts of Explosives from State and Local Government Storage Facilities Are Few But May Be Underreported, dated 31 Oct 05.

The overall number of state and local government explosives storage facilities, the types of explosives being stored, and the number of storage magazines associated with these facilities are currently not known by ATF. ATF has no authority to oversee state and local government storage facilities as part of the federal licensing process, nor does it have specific statutory authority to conduct regulatory inspections of these facilities. As a result, ATF’s ability to monitor the potential vulnerability of these facilities to theft or assess the extent to which these facilities are in compliance with federal explosives storage regulations is limited.

According to ATF’s interpretation of federal explosives laws and regulations, state and local government agencies—including law enforcement bomb squads and public universities—are required to report incidents of theft or missing explosives to ATF within 24 hours of an occurrence. Because this reporting requirement applies to any “person” who has knowledge of a theft from his stock and the definition of “person” does not specifically include state and local government agencies, ATF officials acknowledged that these entities may be unsure as to whether they are required to report under this requirement. If state and local government entities are unsure about whether they are required to report thefts and missing explosives, ATF’s ability to monitor these incidents and take appropriate investigative action may be compromised by a potential lack of information. Further, the size of the theft problem, and thus the risk, at state and local government storage facilities will remain unclear.

This bill was presented last month: Safeguarding Explosives for Homeland Security Act in an effort to address some of the shortcomings identified in the GAO report cited above. According to Thomas, its still in committee.

Originally Posted by Jedburgh II

Disturbing. But there's more of this going on than ever hits the news. For those who don't normally work the issue, take a look at this:

GAO Report: Thefts of Explosives from State and Local Government Storage Facilities Are Few But May Be Underreported, dated 31 Oct 05.


This bill was presented last month: Safeguarding Explosives for Homeland Security Act in an effort to address some of the shortcomings identified in the GAO report cited above. According to Thomas, its still in committee.

The Field Division that I work in inspects all of the local and state storage magazines. We know what's in there and what should be in there. A local department was even cited for a violation of 27 CFR 555 because of their storage problems.