DRUG BUST PAYS FOR POLICE TRAINING CENTER

What was once described as the largest single seizure of drug profits
in U.S. history is helping to finance what local officials tout as the
nation's finest police and fire training operation.

Boca Raton's International Center for Leadership and Development is
scheduled to open in the spring after the $9 million renovation of a
118,000-square-foot building at 6500 Congress Ave., once a Sony Corp.
manufacturing plant.

"It will be kind of cool to be training law-enforcement officers with
bad-guy dollars," said John J. Sullivan Jr., director of training and
professional development for the Boca Raton Police Services Department.

Many area law-enforcement agencies, including the Palm Beach County
Sheriff's Office, are expected to use the center. "I'm sure we'll take
advantage of it," spokesman Paul Miller said.

Sgt. Fred Parker, training officer for the Delray Beach police, said
his department also would be interested in using the facility.

"If they have classrooms, it is always good to get people [officers in
training] away from their usual setting. We would be open to something
there," he said.

The $7.1 million the city paid for the building came directly from the
city's $13 million share of a $280 million forfeiture that followed
the arrests in the 1990s of Colombian drug lord Julio Nasser David and
several U.S.-based associates. Federal agents busted up the smuggling
ring after Boca Raton police in 1988 captured a boat hauling 1,100
pounds of marijuana that eventually led agents to the Nasser David
organization.

Boca Raton, along with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department and
several federal agencies, each took a piece of the forfeiture.

Once completed, the renovation by Kaufman Lynn Inc. general
contractors will give the city a home for its training center that
city officials hope will be nationally known.

"My goal is that within five years, I'd like the center to be
recognized as the premier training organization for first responders
in five or six areas of specialized training," said Sullivan, a
retired U.S. Customs Service special agent.

The center, in the Arvida Park of Commerce, would partner with Florida
Atlantic University to offer academic courses in subjects such as
defensive tactics, homeland security and natural disasters, Sullivan
said.

Renovations of the building include a new roof rated to withstand
hurricane winds of up to 140 mph, according to Jason Roth, project
manager for Kaufman Lynn. "We gutted the interior and started from
scratch," Roth said.