LAST OF 8 MAJOR COCAINE SMUGGLERS PLEADS GUILTY

TAMPA - The last person in a group said to be ``among the most
significant drug traffickers in the world'' pleaded guilty in federal
court Wednesday.

The plea by Teofilo Castillo, who helped smuggle tons of cocaine into
the United States from Colombia in the 1990s, closes a chapter in
Operation Panama Express, described by U.S. Attorney Paul Perez as
``the most comprehensive maritime drug interdiction investigation in
the history of federal narcotic enforcement.''

The Tampa-based, decadelong investigation aims to bring down the
successors to the notorious Cali cartel. Castillo was the last of a
group of cocaine smugglers who investigators say imported about 100
tons of cocaine a year, or roughly 20 percent of the cocaine that came
into the United States annually.

Like Castillo, several former high-ranking figures in the maritime
smuggling organization have in recent months been quietly shuffling
into the courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Thomas Wilson, pleading guilty
to drug conspiracy charges.

Two defendants pleaded guilty last week, and the highest-ranking
former smuggler, Pedro Rafael Navarrete, capitulated to prosecutors
just before Thanksgiving.

All told, eight of 19 defendants named in a 1998 indictment have
pleaded guilty. The remaining defendants either are fugitives or
awaiting extradition in other countries. Many are said to be in Chile,
where extradition has been problematic, officials said.

Although one faction of a loose-knit group of Colombian drug smugglers
might have been put out of business, investigators know others have
taken their place.

``Vacuums fill very quickly in this business, particularly at this
level,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Ruddy said. Authorities expect
more indictments in the coming months.

Kingpin Sought

In the meantime, authorities are trying to extradite Joaquin Mario
Valencia-Trujillo, a Colombian cocaine kingpin who hired the maritime
smugglers to transport his merchandise via Mexico. Ruddy said he did
not know when Valencia-Trujillo would be brought to the United States.
Colombia's new minister of justice has pledged to examine all pending
extraditions.

Two of the last figures to enter guilty pleas in Tampa were anything
but imposing in appearance.

Pleading guilty Dec. 11 were Ruben Cuevas, 44, a slight, angular
diabetic, and Humberto Alvarado, a stooped 66-year-old with a
pacemaker and a bad back. Both played important roles in the smuggling
operation, officials said.

Alvarado once was known as a fearless risk taker, a ship's captain
held up as an example in the smuggling organization.

``He took chances that others couldn't or wouldn't,'' Ruddy said.
Typically, captains would ferry cocaine in international waters,
transferring to smaller, locally flagged vessels before they reached
Mexican waters. Ruddy said the seamen knew a vessel with a Colombian
flag does not have much protection from pirates and law enforcement in
Mexican waters.

But Alvarado had no problem venturing there, and he got away with it,
Ruddy said.

Cuevas organized shipping, according to Ruddy. A trusted figure in the
organization, Cuevas hired and paid the crews and made sure vessels
were properly outfitted and had the right permits.

Running a drug operation is ``a complicated process,'' said Juan
Carlos Molina, group supervisor for the Tampa FBI office. ``It doesn't
come together easily, just as with any business.''

`El Chileno' Biggest Catch

The most important Panama Express figure to plead guilty in recent
weeks was Navarrete, who presided over the maritime smuggling
operation since 1995.

He was ``a very active transporter for a very long time at a very high
level,'' Ruddy said. Navarrete could receive a life sentence.

Known as ``El Chileno,'' The Chilean, Navarrete came to the United
States and went to high school and Miami Dade Community College, where
he met others with whom he would go into the drug business in the 1980s.

By the end of the decade, as the Drug Enforcement Administration was
closing in, Navarrete fled to Europe, running a drug operation out of
various locations, including Spain and Italy, Ruddy said. By 1990,
Navarrete was in Colombia.

Ruddy said Navarrete ``has been a fugitive most of his life.'' But he
was ``living high-style on the run,'' the prosecutor said.

``If he was going to travel from country to country, he would be
leasing jets to do it,'' said Jeff Brunner, group supervisor for the
DEA Tampa office.

These days, smugglers operate as subcontractors, hired by what are
known as cocaine owners, or financiers, Brunner said. Changed from the
old, structured cartel days, the Colombian cocaine business is more of
a loose confederation of drug businesses that work together and either
are controlled or protected by paramilitary organizations involved in
Colombia's civil war.

In the old days, Brunner said, the cartel was known to assassinate
judges, police and prosecutors who got in its way. Now, the smugglers
are not as political, he said. ``Now the violence is all associated
just with the industry, making sure there are no informants
infiltrating their organizations, making sure the debts are paid to
the people they're owed to.''

Navarrete's recent plea was ``open-ended,'' meaning there was no
agreement with the government on cooperation or terms of a sentence.

His attorney, Ruben Oliva of Miami, said Navarrete is ``incredibly
sorry and remorseful. ... He has pled to the indictment, and he is
facing a substantial sentence.''