4 Canada Arrests Heighten Fears of Drug Retaliation

Canadian police Thursday disclosed the arrest of four South Americans near the U.S. border carrying automatic weapons and 9-millimeter pistols amid growing fears that the Medellin cocaine cartel will attempt to retaliate against a U.S.-backed crackdown on Colombian drug kingpins.

The four, traveling in three cars, were arrested Wednesday by police from Edmundston, New Brunswick, and were found to be carrying Venezuelan passports, two of which were determined to be fake, according to Edmundston’s deputy police chief, Delbert Pelletier.

Although a grenade, tear gas, zap guns and a machete were found in the vehicles along with more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition for the weapons, a highly placed U.S. law enforcement source said: “It’s not our belief that this is any kind of hit squad.”

Cocaine Smuggling Suspected

The source, who declined to be identified by name or agency, said that the four are suspected of trying to smuggle cocaine into Canada. More drugs are moving through the New Brunswick area since interdiction was stepped up on Caribbean drug routes, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Police are searching for another suspect because a fifth Venezuelan passport was found in the cars, two of which had New York license plates. The other car, which was rented, had Canadian plates.

“They have no story, no explanation,” Pelletier said, noting that his officers acted on a civilian tip to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that three cars had been seen with suspicious people outside Edmundston, a city of about 13,000.

The four, who Pelletier declined to name, will be arraigned today in court in Edmundston on charges of possessing prohibited weapons, the deputy chief said.

Their arsenal included an Uzi submachine gun, Soviet and Israeli assault rifles and a Japanese grenade that was deactivated. Maps of several Canadian locations and an unmarked map of Maine were found in the cars, Pelletier said in an interview.

He said that the four claimed not to speak English, but Louis Picard, an Edmundston lawyer representing two of the men, said that one does speak English and that he communicated with the other through an interpreter.

“I advised them of their rights and why they were arrested and what’s likely to happen in court,” Picard said Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Secret Service agents Thursday asked the Senate Permanent Investigations subcommittee for any information that it could provide on any security threat to President Bush believed to be growing out of the Colombian drug crackdown.

A defector from a Colombian paramilitary unit working for the Medellin cartel testified before the subcommittee Wednesday, saying among other things that Bush and subcommittee members could be targeted by the Colombian drug outlaws.

Times staff writers Douglas Jehl and Don Shannon contributed to this story.