DRUG SMUGGLING SUSPECT PLEADS GUILTY, AGREES TO COOPERATE

TAMPA - A man described by authorities as the head of security for an
international cocaine smuggling operation has agreed to plead guilty and
cooperate with the U.S. government.

Luis Hernando Velazquez, 46, was extradited from Colombia in January and
was among seven defendants indicted in December 2001 as part of a
far-reaching investigation run out of Tampa and code named Operation Panama
Express.

Of the scores of people indicted in the case so far, the U.S. attorney's
office said, Velazquez is the first in a managerial position in the
organization to enter a plea agreement.

Velazquez was probably in the midlevel managerial ranks, U.S. officials
said, serving as head of security for cocaine smuggling in an organization
that used business fronts in Ecuador and Colombia. He is one of the more
significant people to begin cooperating but not the most significant; the
U.S. attorney's office wouldn't elaborate.

Velazquez, who faces 10 years to life in prison, is scheduled to plead
guilty Monday to drug smuggling charges.

Among those waiting to be extradited is Pedro Rafael Navarrete, who the
government alleges took control of the drug organization in 1995.

According to the agreement, Velazquez says that from about 1997, he worked
for Navarrete "as a trusted member of a multiton maritime cocaine smuggling
organization operating primarily in the Colombian cities of Cali, Medellin,
Buenaventura and Tumaco."

Velazquez says he helped organize, plan and transport the cocaine.

Operation Panama Express began after Navarrete's suspected predecessor,
Jose Castrillon-Henao, struck a deal to cooperate with authorities
investigating the Cali cartel.