Powerfully Explosive Material Found in New Mexico River Bed

November 29, 2003

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  — Seven bags of the kind of explosive material used in the Oklahoma City bombing were found Friday in a dry river bed, days after they were stolen.

The bags, containing a total of 350 pounds of ammonium nitrate, had been stolen from an Albuquerque-based company that distributes explosives used in mining and construction.

The bags, stacked up off an embankment and partially covered with tree limbs, were found by people walking in Albuquerque's western outskirts, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said.

"It was a pretty flimsy attempt to try to conceal it," White said. "One can't help but think the situation became too hot and the decision was made to dump it."

Although one bag was torn, "probably while it was being abandoned," White said the ammonium nitrate "was in pretty safe condition."

Ammonium nitrate is used as fertilizer but can become a powerful explosive when mixed with fuel oil. The government estimated about 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer was used to make the bomb that killed 168 people at Oklahoma City's federal building in 1995.

"This material in the hands of people with evil intentions, the outcome could have been very destructive," White said.

The explosives were stolen from Titan Energy's property near an Interstate 40 exit west of Albuquerque.

The company called authorities Tuesday after employees discovered someone had pried open a semitrailer where the bags of ammonium nitrate were stored. The last time anyone saw the bags was Nov. 19, said Wayne Dixie, the state's resident agent in charge for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

A truck and flatbed also were stolen, but have yet to be recovered.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104356,00.html