New Mexico Explosives Case Also Leads to Chop Shop

Numerous firearms and a chop shop for stolen vehicles were found in the recovery of hundreds of pounds of stolen explosives, federal officials said Saturday.

Four men were arrested Friday in connection with the explosives that were looted from Cherry Engineering’s storage depot eight miles southwest of Albuquerque earlier in the week, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.

Authorities didn’t say what the thieves planned to do with the explosives, which were enough to flatten a large building, but they believed the theft was not related to terrorism.

A tip led to the arrests of Leslie Brown, 44, of Ignacio, Colo., David Brown, 49, of Bloomfield and Eric Wayne Armstrong, 32, of Bloomfield, who all face federal charges that include possession of stolen explosives, said Tom Mangan, ATF spokesman.

Authorities refused to release the identity of the fourth person arrested. A fifth person was being interviewed, Mangan said.

The majority of explosives stolen -- 150 pounds of C-4, 250 pounds of sheet explosives, 20,000 feet of detonator cord and 2,500 blasting caps -- turned up in Bloomfield, though some of the material was found in Ignacio, authorities said.

In Bloomfield, authorities found numerous firearms, including high-powered rifles and sawed-off shotguns, Mangan said. They also discovered a chop shop where stolen vehicles were disassembled and sold for their parts.