Collective effort kept germ threat from spreading

Cathy Scott

Friday, Feb. 20, 1998 | 10:12 a.m.

Because of "a threat to the country," more than 100 FBI agents, bomb squad experts, chemical warfare technicians and police acted immediately to stop a deadly "biological agent from spreading around," the FBI said.

"Our primary concern was the safety of the community," Special Agent in Charge Bobby Siller said at a news conference Thursday at the FBI's Las Vegas headquarters, where he announced the arrest of two men on charges of conspiracy and possession of anthrax, considered to be a biological toxin. "A threat presented itself to this country and to this community. After 12 hours, we resolved it."

After a tip was called in to the FBI Wednesday morning from a man who was arranging to sell technological testing equipment to the suspects, the FBI put William Job Leavitt Jr. of Logandale and Larry Wayne Harris of Lancaster, Ohio, under surveillance in downtown Las Vegas.

The men were driving in a light-beige Mercedes-Benz with California plates. The FBI followed the pair to the Gold Coast hotel-casino on West Flamingo Road using "aerial and ground surveillance," Siller said.

About 6:30 p.m. Harris and Leavitt met the FBI source at a restaurant on West Sahara Avenue. Just after 7 p.m., Harris and Leavitt left the restaurant for a Henderson women's medical clinic on Green Valley Parkway near Sunset Road, arriving about 7:30 p.m., according to a federal affidavit released Thursday. After they went inside the clinic, agents arrested them.

A team of eight FBI hazardous material agents were dispatched from Quantico, Va., arriving in Las Vegas within six hours, Siller said. Also, Army and Dugway (Utah) Technical Support and Dugway Proving Ground teams were dispatched, he said. Henderson and Metro police also were called to assist, he said. Also, hazardous material teams from the Las Vegas Fire Department and Nellis Air Force Base were called to the scene.

Due to the health threat posed by anthrax, a deadly bacteria agents were told was in the trunk of the suspects' car, the FBI had to act quickly to prevent contamination of the valley, Siller said.

"We thought they were going to test it," he said. "We considered it to be a very dangerous biological threat. It is our belief they were taking the chemicals there to conduct a test. We're not talking about a little chemical here where you do a little field test. This was too serious to test (at the scene)."

So agents sealed the car, using a clear plastic and tape, so the car could be tested later. About 10 p.m. it was lifted by an Air Force fork lift and placed onto the bed of an Air Force 18-wheeler rig and taken to Nellis "for inspection," Siller said.

Thursday the car was moved out of Nevada to a northern Utah military installation for tests, Siller said.

Other agents, wearing gas masks, sealed the medical center.

Meantime, Harris and Leavitt were taken by Mercy ambulance to a local hospital to be examined for contamination, Siller said. Once they were cleared, they were booked into the Clark County Detention Center. Both were later transferred to a federal building where they are being held pending the outcome of their Monday hearings.

One police source on the scene described agents wrapping the car plastic as "surreal."

"It looked like they were taking away an alien, ET, or something," he said. "They were wearing gas masks and gloves and meticulously wrapping up the car. It was eerie."

Siller said the 100 or so people helping in the investigation involved "a lot of coordination."

"This wasn't just a drug bust we were dealing with," he said.