| 1 | LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Heightened security persists in Las Cruces, where police and federal agents will sweep more than 100 churches for explosives this weekend. |
| 2 | Officers 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." |
| 5 | Officers, federal agents and bomb-sniffing dogs will move unannounced from church to church this weekend, Montoya said. |
| 6 | They'll be travelling in teams of four looking for anything or anyone suspicious. |
| 7 | Agents 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. |
| 8 | No 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. |
| 9 | No arrests have yet been made for those explosions or for the undetonated explosive device found at First Presbyterian Church on Aug. 14. |
| 10 | Authorities believe the three cases may be connected. |
| 11 | Police 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." |