No evidence exists to back reports that al-Qaida terrorists are in Central America, the chief of the regional office for the international police agency Interpol said Wednesday.
Saul Hernandez said police in the region were on the watch for terrorists, but he said there was no evidence showing overseas terrorists have tried to contact Central American gangs.
| "Nope. Nope. Never happened." |
Interviewed by a small group of reporters during Interpol's annual assembly here, Hernandez said investigators also had been unable to confirm the presence in Central America of a suspected al-Qaida member, Adnan Gushair El Shukrijumah, despite earlier official reports he had been spotted in Honduras. "We do not have information that effectively confirms that this person was there," said Hernandez, who is also El Salvador's police commissioner.
"Coulda been anybody."
"Yeah. Pooh." |
Referring to reports that terrorists might recruit Central American youth gangs known as "maras," Hernandez said: "At no moment has there been evidence that would tend to relate (the maras) with affairs such as terrorism." He said such contacts were unlikely due to the maras' tendency "to establish themselves in a territory and develop local criminal activity."
| "Really. Just giving them money doesn't make them do stuff!" |
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