COCAINE PROBE TARGETS GLENDALE OFFICIAL

Councilman's home searched

Friday, March 07, 2003 - Federal drug agents searched the home of a Glendale
city councilman as part of a probe into an alleged $35 million cocaine ring.
Authorities searched the Castle Rock residence of Michael Dunafon, an
interim councilman in Glendale, on Feb. 26, according to federal court
records.

Federal investigators removed documents, two computers, financial records,
airline ticket stubs and other items from Dunafon's two-level, single-family
home, according to court records.

The search stemmed from a larger investigation that netted the arrests of
two brothers from Aurora. Federal authorities allege the pair ran a $35
million cocaine ring. Investigators said they flew around the country to
deliver the drugs while operating a limousine business to launder the money.

Rodney Mirabal, 34, and his brother, Ruben, 25, were indicted Feb. 13 by a
federal grand jury in Virginia. They appeared in U.S. District Court in
Denver on Monday.

Investigators said the brothers opened Mr. Limos, an Englewood-based
limousine company, to launder drug money. Dunafon owns half the limousine
business, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in federal court by
Brian Villella with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Dunafon is president of Glendale Publishing Co., which was incorporated in
May 1999. The corporate name was changed to Mr. Limos in July 2001, the DEA
affidavit said.

Dunafon's attorney, Harvey Steinberg, said his client "had no clue or idea
about the events surrounding the Mirabals."

Steinberg said Dunafon merely made a bad investment in the pair's limo
business.

"I assume there is a belief by the government that Mr. Limos was a conduit
for the Mirabal brothers to launder money," Steinberg said. "But my client's
only limited connection is that he made a bad investment decision when he
invested in the limousine company. That is the extent of his involvement."

Investigators believed they might find documents, ledgers, receipts and
currency at the Castle Rock home, "which will reflect and document the
magnitude of the Mirabal drug distribution and money laundering
organization," Villella stated in his affidavit.

Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Denver, declined
to elaborate on the search.

The Glendale City Council appointed Dunafon as an interim member Feb. 4
after Mayor Joe Rice, an Army reservist, was called up to serve in a
possible war against Iraq.

Dunafon co-founded the Glendale Tea Party in 1998 to fight the city's
efforts to regulate the community's strip clubs. Dunafon lost a mayoral
election to Rice in 2000.

Prosecutors allege that Rodney Mirabal, who worked for United Airlines, flew
around the country to deliver cocaine packed in suitcases, often with coffee
or fabric softener to mask the smell. He once ferried up to 48 kilos of
cocaine packed in bags and expected to make $1.2 million on the sale,
according to federal investigators.

The federal probe has led to 36 convictions. Rodney and Ruben Mirabal remain
in federal custody.