COLOMBIAN SENTENCED HERE ON DRUG CHARGES

A Colombian national was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison on
drug-trafficking charges stemming from the seizure of 4.4 pounds of heroin
at the Amtrak station in Henrico County last October.

John Jairo Londono-Rivera originally faced trial in federal court, but U.S.
District Judge Robert E. Payne ruled that agents of a drug task force had
not obtained consent from Londono to search his sleeping-car compartment on
Oct. 7.

Londono was confronted by officers in a narrow passageway as the train was
about to leave the Amtrak station in Henrico, Payne concluded after a
hearing. Because of those circumstances and Londono's limited command of
English, the suspect was not aware that he did not have to consent to the
search of the compartment, Payne said.

Without the heroin, federal charges of possession of the drug with intent
to distribute it and conspiracy to distribute it had to be withdrawn.

G. Russell Stone, special counsel to a state multijurisdictional grand
jury, then sought indictments on state charges of transporting heroin into
Virginia and of conspiring to transport it, which have different elements
from the federal charges even though they involve the same conduct.

Londono's attorneys contended that the state could not try Londono because
the issue of the validity of the search already had been determined.

Henrico Circuit Judge George F. Tidey disagreed in May after hearing
testimony from policemen that Londono appeared to have no trouble
understanding them. He said Payne's decision did not bar the state
prosecution because the same parties were not before him that were before
Payne.

Londono's attorneys then asked Payne to intervene and block the state
prosecution, but Payne said, in effect, that the question would have to be
resolved through the state court appellate process.