STOWAWAY SMUGGLERS SENTENCED

Colombians Get 12 Years In Cocaine Bust

Two men who stowed away to smuggle cocaine in a tanker ship bound from
Colombia to Corpus Christi were sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in prison.
Colombians Alberto Ortega-Berrios, 24, and Arley Valencia Ortiz, 25, were
sentenced by U.S. District Judge Hayden W. Head Jr. at the federal
courthouse in Corpus Christi. Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz admitted they
committed the crime, their attorneys said. Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz spent
about eight days in the ship's rudder housing compartment, guarding 525
pounds of cocaine, said Jose Gonzalez-Falla, defense attorney for
Ortega-Berrios. "It's a sad situation where these people are so desperate
to make some money that they find themselves in the rudder hold of a ship
on a voyage across the ocean," Gonzalez-Falla said. "It's a dangerous
undertaking. They had very little to eat, and they were pretty skinny." The
men ate canned food during the voyage.

One of the men was told by a drug organization that he would receive about
$5,000, and that the other would get slightly more for accompanying the
drugs, Gonzalez-Falla said. "They have a minimal education, and the
situation in Colombia is just devastating, poverty-wise," Gonzalez-Falla
said. "When someone is offered this much money to take this kind of a risk,
it seems like a fortune. People are vulnerable because they don't really
have an opportunity to come into this much money. They want to be able to
buy a house. ... And they don't really evaluate the consequences of getting
caught." A large drug smuggling organization provided the men with
wetsuits, flashlights and cell phones, said Ron Barroso, Ortiz's defense
attorney. But the men were not comfortable, Barroso said.

"My client told me he was ready to get out of that place," Barroso said. "I
imagine it was extremely noisy in the rudder housing, up there close, I
guess, to where the propeller goes through. And it was wet, and it was
during the summer, but it was still cold." The drug organization also
provided the men with a phone number they were supposed to call when they
arrived in Corpus Christi. Someone at that number was supposed to help them
unload the drugs, Barroso said. But Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz never got a
chance to make that phone call. A tip led the Drug Enforcement
Administration, U.S. Customs Service and Coast Guard to board the Alta, a
900-foot Lithuanian oil tanker, on July 28. The ship was about seven miles
off Port Aransas, headed for Corpus Christi, when it was boarded. The
cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $5 million,
represented the largest drug seizure in the port's history, according to
the U.S. Customs Service. The drug was packaged in several 60-pound bundles
bound in waterproof material and netting. One of the men tried to swim away
from the ship when he realized he was about to be caught, but he swam back
after realizing he was far from land, said Jon Muschenheim, the assistant
U.S. attorney who prosecuted Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz. "Apparently, they
heard us working on the hatch," Muschenheim said. Officials said
Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz had no connection to the ship or its owner. The
men will not be eligible for release until serving at least 85 percent of
their sentences.