FIGHT THE DRUG WAR, PAY THE BILL

The Yalta Crewmen Are Free To Go Home, But heir Acquittal In Tampa Comes At
A High Price

TAMPA - A year ago, off the coast of Venezuela, a British war ship
intercepted a freighter bound for Europe and bearing nearly 4 tons of cocaine.

Though the vessel was not coming to the United States, in the war on drugs
it is U.S. taxpayers who will bear the high cost of the case.

Sixteen Lithuanian and Ukrainian crewmen were brought to Tampa and held
nearly a year. This week, after a 11/2-month trial, a federal jury returned
not a single guilty verdict.

The cost for all this could top $1-million, according to one of the 16
court-appointed lawyers, some of whom flew to Lithuania, the Ukraine and
Panama to take testimony.

"We've become the Big Brother of the drug industry," said defense attorney
Grady C. Irvin Jr. "If we're guarding the Pacific Ocean and we're
intercepting drugs bound for other countries, should that be the
responsibility of U.S. taxpayers? Why should U.S. taxpayers be footing that
bill?"

"I can't answer that," said the prosecutor, Joseph Ruddy. "That's really a
kind of philosophical, rhetorical question. The law says we should do it,
we did it."

He thought for a moment and added this:

"If the United States interdicts this quantity of drugs, which by the
quantity alone indicates narcotics traffickers of the highest level and
fails to prosecute, it would be a dereliction of duty."

Cigarettes in shirt pockets, speaking halting English, the men congregated
at Clink Street Bar & Grill in Pinellas County on Thursday evening. They
ordered whiskey and beer and mingled with their attorneys - and six members
of the jury who came to celebrate with them.

"Have a safe journey home," 67-year-old juror Paul Lembo, of New Port
Richey, told the men, embracing them. "We did not think you were guilty."

Released from a Tampa immigration office just 24 hours earlier, the men
enjoyed a buffet of sliced meat, crab dip and crackers.

The bar quieted with the arrival of the Ambassador of Lithuania, Vygaudas
Usackas, tall, distinguished, in a dark gray suit. He had boarded a plane
from Portland early Thursday and headed to Tampa Bay to greet the men who
have become front-page news back home.

Usackas said the men deserve a formal apology and compensation for the time
they spent in jail.

"Lithuania has carried the shadow of this case," he said. "I'm glad it's
resolved."

It began late in 2002, when owners of the M/V Yalta contacted crewing
agencies in the Ukraine and Lithuania. Irvin said those countries are flush
with experienced crewmen happy to work for what for others would consider
low wages.

The men were flown to Panama and set out for sea aboard the Yalta in
mid-June 2003.

The Yalta took a north/northeast course but then dipped south, toward the
coast of Colombia. In the middle of the night, cargo was loaded on the Yalta.

The next day, June 23, 2003, sailors from the British warship Iron Duke
stopped the 500-foot freighter, the U.S. Coast Guard boarded and discovered
the cocaine.

The crewmen were taken to Tampa; if convicted as charged, they could have
drawn 25 years to life in prison.

The government touted the arrests as the latest in a string of successes of
Panama Express, a Tampa-based operation that targets traffickers who ship
cocaine in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean.

In their defense, the crewmen said they did not know the Yalta was
transporting drugs. The lone Colombian arrested, trafficker Daniel Effren
Marquez-Silva, pleaded guilty and testified against the crew.

The jury deliberated three days and acquitted all but one defendant, who
the government contended was the link between Marquez-Silva and the
crewmen. The jury deadlocked in his case and could not reach a verdict. He
is expected to be tried again.

Flush with victory, the defense attorneys say the U.S. government had no
business prosecuting the case.

"Congress passed this law which allows them to do this," said Roland
Hermida, who represented the helmsman, Jurij Pavlov. "You know, we're a big
powerful nation, and sometimes we flex our muscles in ways that other
countries cannot understand.

"Under the guise of the international war on drugs, we sometimes trample on
other people's rights."

Bjorn Brunvand represented the ship's Russian captain, 56-year-old Yuri
Chakhrach. "It's ludicrous that we go . . . hundreds of miles from American
shores and bring foreign nationals here and lock them up," he said.

"Can we do it legally? Yes. But I think it's outrageous. And I think the
jury agreed."

Not only is it legal, countered the prosecutor, it's the United States'
obligation as part of the civilized, international community.

"To us, it doesn't make a difference, it's a universally condemned
activity," Ruddy said. "Our law here says it doesn't matter where the
vessel is headed if there's a nexus to the United States."

The case was prosecuted out of Tampa, he said, because it was based on
intelligence developed by Operation Panama Express. Whether the drugs make
their way to Europe or to the United States is beside the point.
Intercepting the Yalta and confiscating 33/4 tons of cocaine is a success.

"The wholesale market value of this cocaine in Europe was $130- million,"
Ruddy said. "The societal benefit of taking that amount of drugs off the
streets is immeasurable."

The acquitted sailors are free to return home, but the U.S. government will
not pay for their transportation.

Mark Ciaravella, who represented Lithuanian sailor Maksim Zakurdajev, said
most of the men had enough wages with them when they were arrested to pay
for plane tickets home. But that money was seized by U.S. marshals.

It could take weeks to get the money back. Meantime, some of the acquitted
sailors are staying at a Tampa rental home owned by one of the attorneys.

"They're essentially stranded," Ciaravella said.

The ship's Russian captain, Chakhrach, went home to Seminole with his
lawyer, Brunvand, and slept in his daughter's empty room.

"I slept like never before in my life," Chakhrach said through a
translator. "It's impossible to sleep in jail."

Chakhrach hopes to fly to Russia as soon as possible to see his sons, 22
and 28, and reunite with his wife of 30 years.

"I will kiss everyone," he said. "And prepare a good meal of salmon."

The men have 30 days to leave the country. Many are trying to finalize
travel plans, and attorneys said the first could leave as early as
Saturday. Many will rely on funds from their lawyers, who hope eventually
to be reimbursed.

Chakhrach said he is not bitter.

"I think only good things about the U.S. government, because they gave us a
chance," he said. "They gave me a very good attorney, and they paid for
that attorney.

"But I'm sad we spent a whole year here. This could have been solved in a
much briefer time period, and would not have cost so much for the American
people."

- - Staff writer Brady Dennis contributed to this report.