MEXICO: TRACKING NARCO-GRENADES

194998
2009-03-03 17:19:00
09MONTERREY100
Consulate Monterrey
SECRET//NOFORN

VZCZCXRO7584
PP RUEHWEB
DE RUEHMC #0100/01 0771547
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P R 031719Z MAR 09 ZDS
FM AMCONSUL MONTERREY
TO RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 4622
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3569
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHCD/AMCONSUL CIUDAD JUAREZ 0070
RHMFISS/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RUEHGD/AMCONSUL GUADALAJARA 0114
RUEHGD/DTS GUADALAJARA
RUEHHO/AMCONSUL HERMOSILLO 0048
RUEHHO/DTS HERMOSILLO
RHMFISS/HQ USNORTHCOM
RUEHRS/AMCONSUL MATAMOROS 0260
RUEHRS/DTS MATAMOROS
RUEHRD/AMCONSUL MERIDA 0275
RUEHRD/DTS MERIDA
RUEHMC/AMCONSUL MONTERREY 9135
RUEHNG/AMCONSUL NOGALES 0012
RUEHNL/AMCONSUL NUEVO LAREDO 0221
RUEHNL/DTS NUEVO LAREDO
RUEHSN/AMEMBASSY SAN SALVADOR 0035
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 0006
RUEHTM/AMCONSUL TIJUANA 0102
RUEHTM/DTS TIJUANA

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 MONTERREY 000100

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y - Classification

NOFORN
SIPDIS

PM FOR DTCC FOR BALLARD, DS FOR IP/ITA, WHA FOR MEX AND CEN, EAP
FOR EAP/K
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/3/2034
TAGS: ETTC MASS SNAR PGOV KCRM CASC MX KS
SUBJECT: MEXICO: TRACKING NARCO-GRENADES

CLASSIFIED BY: Bruce Williamson, Principal Offficer, Consul
General Monterrey, State.
REASON: 1.4 (a),(b),(d)

1. (SBU) During recent months Mexican narco-traffickers have
directed a series of grenade attacks directed against, inter
alia, Mexican law enforcement and military facilities, civilian
crowds, and U.S. consular installations. The escalation in the
strength and power of the weapons used by the narco-traffickers
has not only cost lives, but has taken its toll in terms of the
damage done to local civil society.


2. (S) AmConsulate General Monterrey's ATF Office, the ATF
Explosives Technology Branch, and AmEmbassy Mexico DAO have been
working with Mexican law enforcement authorities to identify the
origin of various grenades and other explosive devices recovered
locally over the past few months, including the unexploded M26A2
fragmentation grenade hurled at the Consulate itself during the
October 11, 2008 attack. Other ordnance recovered includes 21
grenades recovered by Mexican law enforcement on October 16,
2008 after a raid at a narco-warehouse in Guadalupe (a working
class suburb of Monterrey),and twenty-five 40mm explosive
projectiles, a U.S. M203 40mm grenade launcher, and three South
Korean K400 fragmentation grenades recovered the same day in an
abandoned armored vehicle that suspected narco-traffickers used
to escape apprehension.


3. (S/NF) Local Mexican law enforcement has recovered a
Grenade spoon and pull ring from an exploded hand grenade used
in a January 6, 2009 attack on Televisa Monterrey, a Monterrey
television station. Based upon ATF examination, it appears that
the grenade used in the attack on the Consulate has the same lot
number, and is of similar design and style, as the three of the
grenades found at the narco-warehouse in Guadalupe. On January
7, 2009, the Mexican Army recovered 14 M-67 fragmentation
grenades and 1 K400 fragmentation grenade in Durango City,
Durango. Finally and perhaps most disturbing, on January 31,
2009 three men tossed a K-75 grenade into a night club near
Pharr, Texas -- an East Texas border town --but the grenade did
not explode. The attackers may have been targeting three
off-duty police officers who were in the club at the time.


4. (S) The lot numbers of some of the grenades recovered,
including the grenade used in the attack on Televisa, indicate
that previously ordnance with these same lot numbers may have
been sold by the USG to the El Salvadoran military in the early
1990s via the Foreign Military Sales program. We would like to
thank AmEmbassy San Salvador for its ongoing efforts to query
the Government of El Salvador as whether any of its stocks of
grenades and other munitions have been diverted or are otherwise
unaccounted for.


5. (SBU) AmConsulate Monterrey requests that Department
instruct AmEmbassy Seoul to discreetly query the Korean
government regarding the whereabouts, disposition, and the
possibility of any missing stocks of South Korean-made:

--- 40mm High Explosives Cartridges K200, with Lot numbers
HWB95L615-012; HWB95L615-014; EC-87E615-061; EC-88G615-071,
EC-84D610-096, EC-83H615-012, and EC-83H815-012.

--- K400 Fragmentation Grenades, with Lot numbers
EC-89E605-063, HEB96H605-033, HWB96H605-033, HWB96H-609-003,
KG94DK400002-017, KG94D002-017, HWB89S605-063, ME183D, and
HWB95K605-029.

--- K402 Fragmentation Grenades, with Lot numbers HWB96H605-063
and HWB96H605-033.


MONTERREY 00000100 002 OF 002


--- K75 Fragmentation Grenade, with Lot numbers EC-85E605-031
and EC89E605-073.


6. (SBU) Any information as to the destination of this
ordnance and to whom it may have been sold would be most
appreciated. This information will be used in an U.S. ongoing
criminal investigation.
WILLIAMSON