Former FBI Agent Says Juarez Bombing Is Out Of Mid-East Playbook

Last week’s car bombing in Juarez still has residents on edge, and ABC-7 spoke with a former FBI agent to get his take on the attack and what it says about the state of the drug war.

Richard Schwein says Thursday’s car bombing in Juarez seemed like a page right out of the Middle East.

“That’s what they do in Baghdad and in Ramadi and in Kabul. And if you turn on the news, everyday you see it,” he said. “It’s not hard to say, ‘hey, that’s a pretty effective thing to do,’ if you’re a bad guy, and they did.”

But Schwein said unlike in the Middle East, he doesn’t expect cartels will ever use suicide bombers. “They’re in the business to make money; they’re not religious zealots,” he said.

Investigators say the bomb may have been detonated with a cell phone, and was loaded with 22 pounds of C4 plastic explosives.

“That’s a lot of plastic,” says Schwein.

C4 explosives are commonly used by the military and can easily be molded to squeeze into any kind of gaps of cracks. Schwein said adopting this new terrorizing tactic simply means the drug cartel wants to “intimidate the police as much as possible so they don’t interfere with them.”

Schwein said it’s unlikely you’ll ever see anything resembling what happened across the border here in the United States.

“The cartel people don’t wanna be caught on our side of the river because our justice system is very good,” he said.

In addition, the former FBI agent says he hopes the black charred shell of a car that sits on the Juarez street will be the city’s last.

“Let’s hope that’s the only one, but who knows,” Schwein said.