CAPTURE OF DRUG RUNNER HELPED FBI PUT A NAME WITH A FACE

Sometimes, coincidence played a powerful role in Panama Express.
Consider the story of Carlos Zuluaga, once an officer in the Colombian
navy.

More than any other, he was the man who set the stage for the
operation, the newly released FBI affidavit in the case suggests.

After leaving the navy, Zuluaga started running cocaine for Colombia's
Medellin drug cartel, the affidavit states. But he lost a shipment
(presumably it was confiscated, but the affidavit is unclear on this
point), then learned that the notorious Pablo Escobar, the Medellin
cartel's overlord, had ordered Zuluaga's death.

Zuluaga turned for protection to the Cali cartel and soon met a man
who told him his name was Oscar Martinez. In fact, the affidavit says,
the man was Joaquin Mario Valencia- Trujillo, perhaps the Cali
cartel's most anonymous overlord.

Before long, the affidavit continues, Martinez asked Zuluaga to
smuggle a cocaine shipment. It was around New Year's 1992. The cocaine
was buried beneath a shipment of zinc ore in a freighter named the
Harbour.

The ship stopped in Panama for repairs. Zuluaga, the captain, advised
Valencia to abort the operation, but Valencia ordered him to go on,
the affidavit states.

Had Zuluaga's advice been taken, Panama Express might never have
happened. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Campbell stopped the Harbour off
Cuba. Guardsmen found the cocaine quickly and arrested Zuluaga and the
Harbour's 28 crewmen.

Zuluaga later turned government witness and told agents about
Martinez. He was muscular, in his 40s, owned a paper company in
Colombia, was a pilot and sometimes was called "Don Mario," Zuluaga
said.

Agents began looking for him but got nowhere.

Six years later, in 1998, there was another coincidence. Zuluaga
happened to see a television program featuring Luz Mery Tristan, a
popular skater and model with her own clothing line, the affidavit
states. She was married to an industrialist named Valencia, she said.

A photo of Valencia appeared.

Zuluaga called agents, who quickly found a match with Zuluaga's earlier
description of Martinez: Valencia was muscular, in his 40s, owned a
Colombian paper company, was a pilot and went by his middle name,
Mario, the affidavit states.

Investigators hadn't linked Valencia to the cartel before. Although he
and his wife were highly visible and lived in a vast mansion in Cali,
agents said, Valencia was thought to have become wealthy legitimately
through the paper company.