Nation IN BRIEF : PUERTO RICO : Housing Project Raids Continue

About 800 National Guard troops and police swarmed into Puerto Rico’s largest housing project, searching for illegal drugs and weapons and arresting residents. The San Juan raid was the latest in a series of National Guard takeovers of public housing projects in an effort to stem crime and reduce the murder rate--the highest in the U.S. Gov. Pedro Rossello, elected in 1992 on a promise to restore order, has sent police and Guard troops to sweep out crime in the projects, home to about 250,000 people. Since June 1993, the government has taken over more than 70 projects.