Hoping the Bombs Have Stopped

Police believe that the F.A.L.N. has been crushed

One by one the six men and five women were dragged or carried by deputy sheriffs into Judge William Kelly's heavily guarded courtroom last week in Evanston, Ill. They claimed to be freedom fighters and demanded to be tried in military courts. "I am a prisoner of war," screamed Carlos Alberto Torres, 27, who had been on the FBI's Most Wanted list since 1977. Impassively, Judge Kelly ordered the defendants held for arraignment this week. As Torres was hauled off to Cook County Jail, he shouted: "!Viva Puerto Rico libre!" Outside the building about 50 supporters waved red flags and chanted: "Drive the Yankees to the sea; Puerto Rico will be free."

So ended the chaotic hearing for eleven suspected terrorists whose arrest, law-enforcement officials believe, broke the back of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (F.A.L.N.), a small, secretive and extremely violent group on the fringe of the tiny political movement for Puerto Rican independence. Since 1974 the F.A.L.N. has claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings in Chicago, Miami, New York City, Washington and Puerto Rico, killing five people and injuring at least 70 others.

Police and the FBI have tried for years to track down the two dozen or so members of the band, but with no success. Then came two lucky breaks on April 4 in Evanston, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. That afternoon, two men wearing dark coats, sunglasses and fedoras stole a white van at gunpoint from the local office of Budget Rent-a-Car. Half an hour later, police spotted the truck on the campus of Northwestern University and arrested a man and a woman who were carrying pistols.

That same afternoon a woman notified police about the strange behavior of several joggers in her neighborhood of $500,000 houses near Lake Michigan. For half an hour, the men and women had trotted up to a parked van, climbed inside and then run off. Her suspicions were aroused when she spotted one of them smoking a cigarette.

As police questioned the joggers and several companions, one man's mustache started to fall off. "Everybody down!" ordered the officers as they drew their guns and arrested all nine of them.

When searched, the purported runners were found to be wearing street clothes under their jogging togs and carrying pistols. In the van, officers discovered a sawed-off shotgun, a rifle, several hundred rounds of ammunition and radio equipment. Just what was up is still a mystery, but Police Chief William McHugh is convinced that "something bizarre and dangerous was imminent." The eleven were all charged with theft and unlawful use of weapons; one of them was also charged with armed robbery.

Later in the week, using leads turned up in the arrests, police and FBI agents raided two F.A.L.N. hideouts, in Jersey City, N.J., and Milwaukee. They seized guns and bombmaking equipment. Police also found a diagram of New York's Madison Square Garden, the site of this summer's Democratic National Convention.

A few other known F.A.L.N. members are at large. Law-enforcement officials say that only time will tell if they are right in believing that the F.A.L.N has been crushed. Said an FBI official: "If the bombs stop, then we'll know."

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