Federal agents detained five Algerian nationals in metropolitan Boston yesterday after their names surfaced in connection with an Algerian man accused of attempting to smuggle explosives from Canada into Washington state.

All five were kept in custody, accused of a variety of immigration offenses. Sources said none of them has been tied to a terrorist plot, and no weapons or bomb-making materials were recovered in searches of several residences in East Boston.

The arrests came during a coordinated effort among FBI agents in cities from California to New York, looking for associates of Ahmed Ressam, the suspect in the Washington smuggling.

However, only the sweeps in Boston and Brooklyn, N.Y., yielded arrests, said Barry Mawn, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office. The action came just before federal courts closed for the holiday weekend.

At a press conference yesterday, Boston US Attorney Donald K. Stern said each arrest was routine. But the morning arrest in Brighton featured an unusual array of law enforcement resources - including Boston and State Police, a helicopter, and federal agents with guns drawn as they chased a fleeing suspect.

"Recent events suggest there is a heightened risk that individuals might be planning attacks," said Mawn. The bureau is "aggressively pursuing all information and leads in hopes of preventing any acts of violence."

But law enforcement authorities still lack "specific, credible evidence" that terrorism is being plotted here or anywhere else in the country, he said.

Although the men were arrested a day before the holiday weekend, Stern and Mawn discounted any suggestion that federal authorities timed the sweep to keep them in custody during New Year's celebrations.

"If it was more appropriate to have done it three days ago, the bureau would have done it," Stern said.

The undocumented immigrants taken into custody yesterday were Mouai Badredine, who was arrested after a chase in Brighton, and Ouali Mohamed Abdel Aziz 26, and Lahouari Haoud, 31, who were arrested in their homes in East Boston.

Two others, Mouhamed Oukina, 35, and Amine Touarsi, 28, were also taken into custody. FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkewicz did not know the location of their arrests.

Mawn declined to say what connection the five might have to Ressam, but he said some of them know one another.

While the alleged offenses of the five ranged from carrying expired visas - a civil infraction - to possession of fake immigration documents, all will remain behind bars until at least Tuesday, when bail hearings are scheduled for two of the men and immigration hearings are expected to be set for two others.

Badredine, who was ordered to leave the country months ago, faces immediate deportation, said Dennis Reardon, assistant special agent in charge of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The drama in Brighton unfolded yesterday morning when INS agents went to a moving company to serve a warrant to deport Badredine. But when Badredine recognized one of the INS agents, he sprinted toward a row of apartment buildings in the 1400 block of Commonwealth Avenue, according to witnesses and police.

At 8:15 a.m., the FBI asked Boston police for help and soon dozens of police cruisers and police dogs were combing the neighborhood.

Two men who work for a uniform delivery service said they saw a plainclothes police officer jump out of his unmarked cruiser on Brighton Avenue and chase Badredine down the street.

"He just kept walking like he was going to get coffee," said Wil Rolfe, 30, driver of the uniform truck.

With more than a dozen police cars in pursuit, witnesses said, Badredine ran into an apartment building at 1409 Commonwealth. Residents said they were shocked to walk out of their building and see a row of investigators with guns drawn.

One resident, Ed Thornburn, said he was frustrated that no one would tell him what was going on.

"The police won't tell you in your own town what's going on, but they got the shotguns out and they look like they're ready to shoot," he said.

Badredine was cornered in a stairwell of the building and brought out the rear entrance about 8:40 a.m.

INS agent Reardon said Badredine came to the United States aboard a commercial freighter at least six months ago, jumping ship in Boston. Badredine already had a hearing in immigration court and was deported, but he apparently ignored the order.

In East Boston, the arrests of Aziz, 26, and Haoud, 31, were more orderly.

Aziz, who said he works as a gas station cashier, was taken into custody after agents sent to question him at 7 a.m. discovered he has been in the United States illegally since October 1997, when he swam ashore from an Algerian natural gas tanker docked in Boston, court records said.

Haoud, who said in court that he repairs electric motors at a Dorchester machine shop, was arrested when agents, alerted by his nervous behavior, noticed that the green card he held actually belonged to a Colombian woman, according to court documents.

Haoud entered the United States in March 1995 on a six-month tourist visa and said he recently paid $200 for a black-market green card to help him get a better job, according to court records.

Globe correspondent Tara Yaekel contributed to this report.

This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on 12/31/1999.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.