International terrorists link with drug cartels in South America

Before his arrest El Said Hassan Ali Mohamed Mukhlis was a terrorist based in the tri-border area of South America. Egypt said it suspects him of being a shooter in the 1997 attack in the tourist city of Luxor that killed 58 foreigners and four Egyptians.

Moreover, Egyptian and U.S. officials have called him a key player in the Egyptian extremist group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, which gets support from Osama bin Laden, the Saudi renegade accused of masterminding the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last year. Mukhlis's case raises troubling questions about the growing presence of international terrorists in Latin America.

The twin towns of Chui, Brazil, and Chuy, Uruguay -- and even more, the area about 560 miles north of here where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet -- are part of a new front line in the battle against international terrorism.

And U.S. officials said that the arrest of Mukhlis here on Jan. 29 was an important catch in the cat-and-mouse game in which the United States and its allies are trying to counter an accelerating effort by bin Laden and his allies to retaliate for the U.S. cruise-missile attack on bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan after the embassy bombings.

"This is a major blow to bin Laden's organization," a U.S. intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Mukhlis is one of a relatively small number of people that bin Laden can count on to carry messages, spread the word, and move around the world."

A wiry man with a thin moustache, Mukhlis was born in Port Said, Egypt, in 1968, according to Egyptian authorities. When arrested on the Uruguayan side of this town, he had a Malaysian passport that gave his name as Ibrahim Mohammada al Thaqaaf and his birthdate as May 25, 1964.

"The Uruguayans knew in advance exactly what he looked like, what kind of passport he had, the number of the passport, and how many people were with him," an Argentine intelligence official said in Buenos Aires.

The Uruguayans also soon learned of his travel plans: Mukhlis had five airplane tickets for London, via Sao Paulo, Brazil, for himself, his wife and their three children, Argentine officials said.

Argentine intelligence officials said that Mukhlis speaks Arabic, English and Spanish.

Mukhlis' name had been on a list circulated by Egyptian security officials to intelligence agencies and other authorities around the world. The Egyptians have said that he also may have had a role in an assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995.

Argentine investigators said that Mukhlis had been living since 1993 in Foz de Iguacu, Brazil, a scenic city in the so-called tri-border area where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina meet.

U.S. intelligence has been keeping a close watch for years on the area, where about 18,000 people of Arabic descent live and where officials said several "very virulent" Islamic extremist organizations have been operating for some time.

Mukhlis had a shop across the border in Paraguay's Ciudad del Este, where he sold household electrical appliances. But the Argentine intelligence officials said that the shop was a front for a business in false passports, including the ones he got for himself and his family.

They said that he also communicated with members of the extremist groups Hezbollah and Hamas, sent money to the Middle East, and provided logistical support for al Gamaa al Islamiyah.

"He's a real fanatic," Jomaa, the Chui mayor, said, adding that Mukhlis told him that he had traveled to Afghanistan several years ago for 18 months of religious preparation.

Intelligence sources said that he went there to prepare for something else entirely. "He wasn't studying the Koran," one U.S. official said. "He was going to bomb school."