U.S. seizes missiles at New Mexico school

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) -- Federal agents plan to serve a search warrant Monday at an explosives training school in the desert near Roswell where, authorities say, a Canadian national trained Arab students to use shoulder-launched missiles and other explosives.

David Hudak, 41, was arrested last week on federal explosives and immigration charges, said Special Agent Tom Mangan of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. A criminal complaint was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO U.S. agents say Arab students were taught to use shoulder-fired missiles at a private facility in New Mexico. CNN's Carol Lin reports (August 18) Play video

Hudak, from Canada, ran the school in the southeastern New Mexico desert, where students from the United Arab Emirates and Yemen were taught how to use high-powered explosives.

Last week, agents seized about 1,000 pounds of munitions -- including warheads, rockets and missiles for shoulder-guided weapons -- and believe they will find another 4,000 pounds when they open two bunkers Monday, Mangan said.

The warheads seized so far were in 49 crates, and many of them were painted with yellow bands, a NATO marking identifying them as containing high explosives, court papers said.

The crates were falsely labeled as "charge demolition," said Special Agent Tony Singleton of the U.S. Customs Service. Illegal importers often mislabel items to circumvent customs laws, he said.

Inside the crates were "bunker-defeat munitions," military warheads designed to be fired from shoulder-mounted weapons. Agents found no launching devices for the warheads.

There is no reason to suspect Hudak has ties to terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, he said.

Federal agents will be at the school, HEAT, an acronym for High Energy Access Tools, over the next week, he said. Because of the number of explosives and warheads, ATF officials have arranged for specialized government contractors to remove them from the site, court papers said.

One reason Hudak was arrested was that he lied in order to obtain the explosives, using the school as a front, Mangan said. The criminal complaint says Hudak possessed missiles that were not registered to him or the school.

The school's Web site gives a Casper, Wyoming address, and describes itself as "a provider of training services for law, military, and government personal (sic) only."

"It looks like that was, if you will, a front for him to hide himself and submerge himself to avoid the licensing," said Mangan.

"We are not training terrorists," said HEAT Security Director Frank Fish. "Actually, it's the opposite of that. We are assisting in training counter-terrorists, anti-terrorists, those kinds of things."

Hudak's wife, Leslie, told Canada's Global Television that everything the company has purchased is "perfectly legal" and was dealt with through the proper authorities.

"We train special forces. We train law enforcement personnel," she said. "Post-9/11, it's a very growing business."

She said the federal raid and her husband's arrest stemmed from a disgruntled employee, one of three her husband fired recently for improper conduct, and has resulted in "false and misleading accusations."

Mangan said he did not know how many students attended the two-week class. The students are cooperating with investigators, he said.

Norm Cairns, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque, said the school was engaged in "private training exercises," which by itself is not unusual.

"There are a lot of private firms in the United States that train members of the military from other parts of the world," Cairns said.

The court papers noted information from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which said it had previously investigated Hudak and his Canadian company, International Hydro Cut Technologies. HEAT is a subsidiary of that company, the RCMP said.

Hudak had told the RCMP that his company provides tactical explosive devices used by international police emergency response teams and anti-terrorism units.

Canadian authorities arrested Hudak in 1997 on charges of unsafe storage of explosives and possession of restricted, prohibited weapons, including handguns and shotguns. He pleaded guilty to possession of prohibited weapons and careless handling and storage of a firearm.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Hudak was in the United States illegally.

Mangan said additional charges were pending.