FORMER DRUG LORD'S FATE RESTS WITH JURY

MIAMI - Jurors began deliberating the fate Tuesday of former Colombian drug
lord Fabio Ochoa, after a three-week trial dominated by the testimony of
his former friends and alleged co-conspirators.

"Let today be the day of Fabio Ochoa's reckoning," federal prosecutor Ed
Ryan concluded in the government's closing arguments.

Ryan portrayed the defendant as a wily fiend who had duped the justice
system - "and the whole world" - during a drug career spanning more than
two decades and involving 56 tons of cocaine.

The government alleges that after spending less than six years in jail in
Colombia for drug trafficking in the 1990s, Ochoa returned to the drug
business in 1999, participating in a conspiracy to ship 20 tons of cocaine
into the United States.

The case stems from a controversial 1999 Drug Enforcement Administration
investigation, code-named Operation Millennium, that netted Ochoa along
with more than 30 other high-level Colombian traffickers.

But the trial outcome is far from certain after defense lawyers repeatedly
called into question the truthfulness of government witnesses, and
succeeded in undermining a key piece of government evidence.

In his closing argument, defense lawyer Roy Black dismissed the
government's case as "nothing but a bunch of lies," concocted by co-
defendants to frame Ochoa.

Instead of a search for the truth, he described the government's case as a
desperate "search for a conviction," born out of the desire to nail one of
the legends of the cocaine industry.

Black pointed out that the government's main witnesses were all drug
traffickers who had agreed to collaborate with the prosecution to win a
sentence reduction.

Despite allegedly playing a minor role in the shipments, Ochoa 46, faces
life in prison.

Meanwhile, the government's star witness, drug kingpin Alejandro Bernal,
was the DEA's main target in Operation Millennium. Bernal admitted in court
to a lengthy drug trafficking career, including bribing police officers and
judges, as well as smuggling guns to Colombia's illegal paramilitary army.

The government defended its use of collaborating co-defendants, saying that
the deals depended on witnesses telling the truth.

"It's not some cute little hug-in. There are laws at work here," said Ryan.
Because of the secretive nature of drug deals, only those involved in the
criminal activity had firsthand knowledge of them, he said.

Black focused much of his defense argument on errors in the government
transcripts of taped drug meetings involving Ochoa and the other conspirators.

The government admitted that the tape transcripts did contain flaws but
said they were mostly "irrelevant and silly" mistakes with no serious
bearing on the case.

"The taping system in this case was very difficult," said Ryan, explaining
that the bugging device used was hidden in a wall and could not pick up
voices clearly.

But Black turned angrily on the government's handling of the tapes. The
government's failure to detect and correct errors in the transcripts
suggested a "highly sinister and disturbing" mishandling of the evidence.

He turned the jury's attention to a highly incriminating transcript in
which the government alleged Ochoa could be heard giving advice about how
to air-drop bales of drug cash over unpoliced rural areas.

Black insisted the voice was not Ochoa's but had been confused with those
of two other traffickers.

Furthermore, federal prosecutors had failed to produce any documents
showing Ochoa had participated in the conspiracy, or received a "single
dime" from it, he added.

But Ryan countered, saying Black's claims of sinister government actions
were nothing but a "smoke screen" to hide Ochoa's drug dealing. If Ochoa's
name was not on any documents or he was rarely heard on the tapes, that was
deliberate.

"He's made a life and a career and a king's fortune by being careful," said
Ryan.

The jury suspended its deliberations after about one hour, and will resume
today.