2 Pipe Bombs Aimed at Drug Agents Probed

Three Ventura County police agencies and the U.S. Postal Service have formed a task force to investigate two recent pipe bomb incidents intended for narcotics detectives in the western part of the county.

The more recent incident occurred Monday when a powerful pipe bomb arrived in the mail at the home of a Ventura County sheriff’s undercover narcotics detective.

The device was defused by sheriff’s bomb squad members after the detective’s wife notified her husband of the unexpected package. There were no injuries.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Vince France, who heads the task force, said the bomb was the work of an individual or a group calling itself the “People’s Liberation Army,” which claimed responsibility for an earlier pipe bomb that exploded Sept. 12 in the front yard of an Oxnard narcotics detective, injuring the officer’s young stepson.

The group has not claimed responsibility for Monday’s bomb. Along with the pipe bombs, it has sent four letters to police and a local newspaper.

“We’re a little more cognizant about what’s going on around us,” said Sgt. Don Arth, city supervisor of narcotics detectives in Ventura, referring to the approximately 35 narcotics officers in the area.

“A lot of the concern is because the first explosion injured a small child and we all live in residential areas with small children in them,” he said.

The task force, formed Tuesday, is composed of officers from the police departments of Oxnard and Ventura, the county Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Postal Service.

Authorities first became aware of the People’s Liberation Army on Sept. 4 when the Oxnard Police Department received a terse note stating, in part, “The only good narc is a dead narc,” France said. The letter, bearing an Oxnard postmark, was signed with the name of the group.

Boy Injured

On Sept. 12, Julian Sandoval, 7-year-old stepson of Oxnard undercover detective Pete Nicolle, picked up a device in Nicolle’s front yard, France said. After placing it back on the ground, it exploded. The boy suffered minor injuries and burns, France said.

The device had been intentionally designed so that the blast would be vented through the ends of the pipe--indicating, France said, “that their intent was not to kill anybody.”

But Monday’s more powerful bomb could have caused serious injury or death, he said.

The Ventura County Star-Free Press received a letter Sept. 14 from the group, assuming responsibility for the Sept. 12 bombing, France said. The note indicated that the attacks would continue. Sheriff’s narcotics detectives also received letters using similar language on Sept. 25 and Oct. 4.

The task force is also investigating whether a powerful pipe bomb that blew apart a Postal Service mail box in Ventura on Sept. 29 is related to the other incidents.

Postal authorities have offered a $10,000 reward and the Ventura County Peace Officer Assn. has put up a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the incidents.