BOAT SEIZED FEB. 24 HAD 8.8 TONS OF COCAINE, U.S. SAYS

SAN DIEGO, March 4 (AP) -- U.S. authorities today unloaded 8.8 tons of
cocaine that they said was seized on a rusty fishing boat off the coast of
Mexico. It was the government's fourth-largest seizure.

The Coast Guard said a Navy destroyer with a Coast Guard law enforcement
unit on board seized the boat Feb. 24 about 250 miles west of Acapulco. The
boat was towed to San Diego.

The seizure capped what the agency called one of its most productive weeks
of anti-drug patrols.

In six days, the Coast Guard -- from Miami to the Caribbean, and in the
Pacific from Mexico to Washington state -- seized 28,845 pounds of cocaine,
about the same amount it captured in all of 1996.

"We've never had a week like this where our border has been assaulted all
the way from the Bahamas to Seattle," said Cmdr. Jim McPherson.

The 10 crew members of the Belize-flagged boat, Forever My Friend, will
face drug-smuggling charges that carry a minimum 10-year sentence and a
maximum of life in prison on conviction, U.S. Attorney Gregory Vega said.
The crew members were to appear in federal court in San Diego on Monday.

Eight of the men are from Nicaragua, one is from El Salvador and one is
from Ukraine. The cocaine was found in a secret compartment, authorities said.

Agents wearing surgical masks, gloves and protective white jumpsuits spent
this morning unloading the large blocks of cocaine from the boat. Federal
agents with automatic weapons guarded it on the pier.

The string of recent seizures reflects a general increase in the amount of
cocaine seized at sea by the Coast Guard working with the Navy, the Customs
Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies.

In 1999, the Coast Guard seized a record 55 tons of cocaine, which broke
the previous record of 40.7 tons. In 2000, the agency captured 66 tons.

The Coast Guard estimates it captures only a fraction of U.S.-bound
cocaine. The cocaine generally is produced in Colombia and shipped either
through the Caribbean or via the Pacific to Mexico. From Mexico, the drugs
are smuggled into the United States through the Southwest.

Navy ships on drug patrols travel with Coast Guard contingents on board
because the U.S. military is prohibited from law-enforcement activities.
The Coast Guard, which is part of the Transportation Department, faces no
such restriction.

During the string of seizures from Feb. 21 to Feb. 27, the agencies also
captured 5,538 pounds from a Canadian trawler off Washington's Pacific
Coast on Feb. 21 and 3,920 pounds from a small powerboat north of San Juan,
Puerto Rico, on Feb. 25. In all, 24 people were arrested.