Fire Bomb Destroys Florida Dea Office

WASHINGTON - A federal Drug Enforcement Administration office in Fort Myers, Fla., was destroyed by a fire bomb yesterday, and authorities said they were studying recent drug-related indictments in an effort to identify suspects.

Frank Shultz, a spokesman at DEA headquarters in Washington, said a pipe bomb was thrown through a window of the Fort Myers field office shortly after 2 a.m., gutting the one-story structure. No one was hurt.

The bombing marked the first time that a DEA facility had been attacked since the federal government stepped up its war on drugs. Florida is a major international hub for drug trafficking. Fort Myers is a growing resort community southwest of Miami on the Gulf Coast.

Another explosion was reported three hours earlier in a residential area 10 miles from the DEA office, said Sheri Peterson of the Lee County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities did not know whether the two incidents were related, but a DEA official said the first blast could have been ``a diversion.''

Thomas Cash, special agent in charge of the Miami DEA office, flew to Fort Myers to inspect the bombed-out office, located in a shopping mall. The federal drug-enforcement agency was the only tenant in the building. Damage was estimated at $4 million.

A special team of FBI explosives experts from Washington was sent to the scene along with technicians from the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said Allen McCreight, head of the FBI field office in Tampa.

John Fernandez, a DEA official in Miami, said agents were examining numerous possibilities in an effort to determine who carried out the bombing.

``It could be one of many individuals,'' he said, noting that the Fort Myers office has developed a number of recent drug cases.

``If you look at the productivity of this office, we've been knocking them dead lately,'' he said.

A drug-related indictment was returned Thursday in Fort Myers, and two of the four defendants are still at large. But federal officials cautioned they were not yet linking that case to the bombing.

``This is an act of desperation,'' Fernandez said.