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03/26/93
Cult arms buildup described; Affidavit explains ATF raid, officials say
By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-An ATF affidavit explaining reasons for a search of the Branch Davidian compound portrays a systematic, nationwide effort by the cult to acquire assault weapons, explosives and automatic weapons technology, federal officials said.
The document, which remains sealed under federal court order, describes how the group bought more than $100,000 in assault rifles, weapons parts, chemicals and grenades beginning in spring 1992, officials told The Dallas Morning News.
It gives accounts by government witnesses of the cult's efforts to design and manufacture a crude submachine gun, repeated reports of explosions and automatic weapons fire on the heavily fortified compound grounds.
The details from the search warrant-which a law enforcement agency presents to a U.S. magistrate to show there is probable cause for a search-contradict recent accusations by released Branch Davidians that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms came onto their property without justification. The cult members also have said that ATF agents fired the first shots that touched off the Feb. 28 firefight.
A number of cult members released in the last week have called TV network news shows and Dallas radio talk-show hosts to portray the cult as a victim of ATF aggression and a federal plot to shoot first and ask questions later.
Cult member Livingston Fagan of Great Britain said outside the Waco federal courthouse Wednesday and on a CBS News show that federal agents "absolutely' fired first in their raid on the compound.
ATF intelligence division chief David Troy, who talked to reporters for the first time Thursday, flatly disputed the cult members' assertions, which uniformly echo charges made by cult leader David Koresh during the first days of the standoff.
He also gave the agency's most aggressive response to date to questions about the ATF's actions against the heavily armed cult outside Waco.
"Some of the people who are out are claiming once again that ATF fired first when this raid was executed,' said Mr. Troy, 46, a 21-year ATF veteran, who has replaced Deputy Director Dan Conroy as agency spokesman at the Waco news briefings.
"The people who are making those statements are, of course, in our opinion, making self-serving statements because they were members of the compound who opened fire indiscriminately with automatic weapons on officers on the law,' he said.
Shooting described
Mr. Troy said the federal assault teams that approached the compound in cattle trailers on the morning of Feb. 28 did not even manage to get out of the vehicles before cult members started shooting.
Waco TV and newspaper reporters who witnessed the shootout have confirmed the ATF's account of how the gunbattle began.
One ATF agent who participated in the raid said cult members opened the door on agents, slammed it shut as agents yelled, "Search warrant, federal agents,' and began firing bursts from automatic weapons through the compound's main double doors.
Mr. Troy said that some of the gunfire that killed four federal agents and wounded 16 clearly came from automatic weapons.
"They are illegal weapons. They were manufactured illegally,' he said, adding that their use confirmed information about the ongoing investigation detailed in the federal search warrant.
A federal official said the ATF search warrant affidavit includes evidence that one of the cult members, a mechanical engineer, was using a computer-aided design program to design a "grease gun,' a crude submachine gun patterned after a World War II-era weapon.
One federal informant gave agents a drawing of the gun design made on a hotel napkin, and other informants recounted being shown templates designed for machining the metal parts that would be used to construct the weapons inside the compound, the official said.
Machinery detailed
And the investigation showed that the group had a metal lathe and milling machinery that could be used in making illegal machine guns, the official said.
The document also details separate deliveries to the cult by two men under federal investigation for manufacturing illegal machine guns and silencers, and a third who had been convicted of those charges, the official said.
The affidavit also gives other exhaustive details of a federal investigation that began after McLennan County Sheriff's Department investigators approached ATF with evidence of the group's efforts to arm itself, the officials said.
In June 1992, McLennan County sheriff's deputies received information that shipments of AR-15 and AK-47 machine gun conversion parts, various chemicals and hand grenade hulls were delivered to a cult-operated business, the Mag Bag, and were addressed to Mr. Koresh. Federal agents raided the abandoned business on March 6 but found only six shotgun shells.
As deputies tracked the shipments delivered by United Parcel Service, the warrant states, federal ATF agents learned in an interview with an Olympia, Wash., gun dealer that major firing components for 45 AR-15 assault rifles had been sent to the Mag Bag.
Agents then tracked dozens of other purchases of M-16 and AK-47 parts and machine gun conversion kits, including 20 100-round bullet drums for AK-47s, 260 magazines for AR-15s and 8,000 rounds of 9mm and .223-caliber ammunition from sources in Illinois, New Jersey and Texas, the official said.
Purchases tracked
Agents also tracked purchases of 26 other handguns and long guns, and heard from witnesses that a Hewitt, Texas, gun dealer had bragged of selling hundreds more weapons to Mr. Koresh, the official said.
The affidavit also describes a series of investigations by sheriff's deputies of reported automatic weapons fire and explosions beginning in January 1992, the official said.
Neighbors with military experience complained of automatic weapons fire coming from the compound, the official said.
In one July 1992 incident, deputies investigated reports of M-16 and 50-caliber automatic weapons fire and an explosion, the official said.
And on Nov. 13, 1992, another explosion was witnessed by a passing sheriff's deputy, the search warrant affidavit stated.
Witnesses interviewed by agents described seeing Mr. Koresh firing automatic weapons or talking with followers about building the guns. In one instance, witnesses told federal officials, the cult leader even displayed an AK-47 to the cult and described how its selector switch could be used to change the gun's discharge from single shot bursts to automatic fire, the official said.
In December, a state social worker told authorities that she had visited the compound on a child welfare complaint and was forced to wait 30 minutes while Mr. Koresh prepared the buildings for her visit.
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