Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

Waco Stand-Off: David Koresh and the Branch Davidians (Part II)

The Aguilera affidavit

The ATF used an affidavit filed by Davy Aguilera to obtain the warrant that led to the Waco siege. The official filing date of this Affidavit was the 25th of February 1993. Allegedly, the initial investigation began in June of 1992 when a postal worker informed a Sheriff of McClennan County that he believed he had been delivering explosives to the ammo and gun store owned and operated by the Branch Davidians. This store named the "Mag-Bag", had been identified by said postal worker as suspicious in deliveries. The postal worker continued deliveries to the Mt. Carmel Center and reported seeing manned observation posts; in the affidavit, it states he believed they were armed personnel at these observations posts.

The McClennan county sheriff was notified in May and June of that year of two cases of inert grenades, black gunpowder, 90 pounds of powdered aluminum metal, and 30-40 cardboard tubes. Furthermore, the sheriff noticed another shipment of sixty AR-15/M-16 magazines, to which Davy Aguilera made the statement, "I have been involved in many cases where defendants, following a relatively simple process, convert AR-15 semi-automatic rifles to fully automatic rifles of the nature of the M-16" to justify the ATF's involvement in the case.

Another report was made to the Sheriff in November of 1992 by a local farmer who believed he heard machine gun fire. "By the sound of it," he said, "it was likely a .50 caliber machine gun and multiple M-16's." This farmer claimed he was very familiar with machine guns, having done a tour overseas in the U.S Army. The affidavit closes with Aguilera verifying the story via interviews made with associated parties and gun shops from which the Mag-Bag purchased items. Among these items were over forty-five AR-15 upper receivers and five M-16 upper receivers, which Aguilera clearly annotates, "These kits contain all the parts of an M-16 machine gun except for the lower receiver unit which is the "firearm" by lawful definition," admitting that neither the noise complaints nor the items ordered were necessarily illegal.

The Department of Human Services is noted in the affidavit as well. BATF happened to get statements from a department worker who managed to investigate a case on the Carmel site. This agent, Joyce Sparks, had two separate visits to the grounds where she questioned members of the Branch Davidians and toured the compound. The first visit involved interviewing a young boy of the compound "who was in a rush to grow up so he can have a long gun." This issue was not looked into until Ms. Joyce's second visit when she was able to speak to David Koresh himself. He nonchalantly mentioned there were only a few guns, but when Ms. Joyce asked if it is okay to tour the compound, he requested she wait for thirty minutes so he can hide any guns from members not shown the guns. During this tour was when Ms. Joyce looked inside a trap door and noticed a buried bus with a refrigerator at the end. It was obvious the refrigerator was used as target practice by the Davidians, with the bullet holes in it and the guns strewn along the floor of this makeshift basement.

ATF raid

Preparations

Using the affidavit filed by Aguilera that alleged that the Davidians had violated federal law, the ATF obtained search and arrest warrants for Koresh and specific followers on weapons charges, citing the many firearms they had accumulated. The search warrant commanded a search "on or before February 28, 1993", in the daytime between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM. ATF made a claim that Koresh was possibly operating a methamphetamine lab, to establish a drug nexus and obtain military assets under the War on Drugs. Although the ATF's investigation "focused on firearm violations, not on illegal drugs", the ATF requested assistance from the DEA and the DOD "citing a drug connection" based on 1) a recent delivery to the compound of "chemicals, instruments, and glassware", 2) a written testimony from a former compound's resident, alleging "Howell had told him that drug trafficking was a desirable way to raise money", 3) several current residents who "had prior drug involvement", 4) two former residents who were incarcerated for drug-trafficking crimes, and 5) National Guard overflights' thermal images showing a "hot spot inside the compound, possibly indicating a methamphetamine laboratory". Although the original request for assistance was initially approved, the commander of the Special Forces detachment questioned the request, and the ATF obtained only a training site at Fort Hood, Texas, from February 25 to February 27 with safety inspections for the training lanes, and was given only medical and communications training and equipment.