New Mexico city sees heightened security after church blasts

1Heightened security persists in Las Cruces, where police and federal agents will sweep more than 100 churches for explosives this weekend.
2Officers have been sweeping churches each weekend since the Aug. 2 explosions at a Baptist and a Catholic church, reported the Albuquerque Journal (http://bit.ly/1NMyixV).
3"It's just something we've got to do," said Las Cruces Police Chief Jaime Montoya.
4"It's something there is a dire need for, and we'll continue as long as we can."
5Officers, federal agents and bomb-sniffing dogs will move unannounced from church to church this weekend, Montoya said.
6They'll be travelling in teams of four looking for anything or anyone suspicious.
7Agents and officers from the FBI, Homeland Security, State Police, local police, New Mexico State University Police and Dona County Sheriff's Office are maintaining a presence Las Cruces, New Mexico's second-largest city.
8No one was injured in the Aug. 2 blasts at Calvary Baptist Church and Holy Cross Catholic Church, but the force of the explosions sent shards flying, shattered a window and launched a mailbox nearly 200 feet.
9No arrests have yet been made for those explosions or for the undetonated explosive device found at First Presbyterian Church on Aug. 14.
10Authorities believe the three cases may be connected.
11Police detectives and federal agents brought together the three church leaders to discuss their positions on contentious topics, searching for a motive, Montoya said.
12"That's the million-dollar question: motive," Montoya said.
13"There has to be something, why someone or some people are targeting these churches. We were trying to find something really off-the-wall that would connect those two (Calvary and Holy Cross) and Presbyterian."