N.M. School Official Says U.S. Seized Legal Missiles

Two thousand missiles seized by federal agents from a counter-terrorism school in New Mexico were licensed and had been obtained legally, an official of the training firm said Monday.

David Hudak--president of HEAT, or High Energy Access Tools, an anti-terrorism and police-training company--was arrested last week on federal explosives and immigration charges.

Hudak, a Canadian, was taken on Monday to El Paso, where he had an “identity hearing” with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. His arraignment on federal weapons charges is likely to take place today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., officials said.

Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said they found 49 crates of armor-piercing missiles at the school, which had clients from Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, and believe there are about another 4,000 pounds of munitions on the premises.

Frank Fish, HEAT’s director of security, said Hudak’s visa had expired, but he insisted his boss had obtained the weapons legally. “The weapons that he had are licensed. We do have the paperwork for that,” Fish said on CBS’ “The Early Show.”

“I’m sure after the ATF have finished their look, they’ll see that everything is in order.”

The weapons had come through customs legally from Canada and were on HEAT’s inventory, which had been inspected by the ATF, Fish said.

ATF agents said Sunday that they and the FBI had seized more than 2,300 unregistered missiles at the school, but that there was no reason to think Hudak had any ties to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda. They said the missiles were worth about $54 million.