TAMPA-RUN PROBE NETS ALLEGED CALI KING

Drug Trial Will Take Place Here

The alleged leader of Colombia's notorious Cali cocaine cartel was arrested
in the capital of Bogota on U.S. drug and money-laundering charges Friday,
capping a massive international investigation being run from Tampa.

Joaquin Mario Valencia-Trujillo - known to many in the drug trade as El
Joven, or The Young Man, because of the age at which he purportedly took
over the cartel - was taken into custody at a Colombian prosecutor's
office, law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said.

The arrest climaxes one of the biggest U.S. drug investigations ever.
Code-named Operation Panama Express, it stretches back more than a decade
and has resulted in the seizure of more than 180 tons of cocaine with a
street value running into billions of dollars.

Valencia-Trujillo was arrested on four charges detailed in an indictment
secretly returned in August by a federal grand jury in Tampa, officials said.

The charges include operating a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring
to import cocaine and conspiring to distribute it, and conspiring to
launder money. If convicted on any of the first three, Valencia-Trujillo
could be sentenced to life in prison. If convicted of money laundering, he
could be sentenced to 20 years.

A formal Justice Department announcement of the arrest is expected next week.

Valencia-Trujillo, a button-down businessman in his mid- 40s, lives with
his parents and his wife and children in a heavily guarded, palatial
compound in Cali known as Casa Blanca, or the White House.

He operates more like a Fortune 500 chief executive officer than a
traditional Colombian drug lord. He is highly organized and pays close
attention to detail. He is a smart but conservative dresser. Although many
people in Cali know him on sight, he keeps a low profile and doesn't drink
or use drugs. And he prides himself on staying fit - on average he works
out three hours a day.

Many Countries, Agencies

Officials also disclosed Friday the arrests of two others accused of being
cartel kingpins: Pedro Navarette, a Chilean national who allegedly ran the
cartel's maritime operations, and his alleged lieutenant, Manuel "Papa" Aviles.

They were taken into custody by Colombian authorities in September while
dining at a restaurant in Medellin. Both have been charged with federal
drug and money-laundering counts in a separate indictment in Tampa.

Building the case against Valencia-Trujillo involved the combined efforts
of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs, the FBI, the CIA, the
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, and the police and intelligence services of a
number of other countries.

There have been dozens of exploits along the way worthy of a Hollywood spy
movie. In one instance, CIA agents rented an apartment above a unit
occupied by one of the cartel's leading figures in Panama City, Jose
Castrillon-Henao, known to authorities as El Hombre con Mil Nombres, or The
Man of a Thousand Names, because of the many aliases he used.

Then they drilled a hole into his ceiling, inserted a miniature video
camera and began building a record of his activities and contacts.

Castrillon-Henao, believed to have once presided with Navarette over the
cartel's maritime operations, subsequently was arrested by Panamanian
police. He worked relentlessly from jail to try to get back to his native
Colombia and finally was led through an elaborate sting to believe he was
on the verge of succeeding.

He was flown under guard by helicopter to an airport where a plane was
waiting. Castrillon-Henao was jubilant.

But at the airport, the trap closed.

The plane was a U.S. government executive jet, and its crew included
federal agents. Castrillon-Henao was stunned.

When the jet took off, it banked northeast and headed for Tampa. It landed
in the middle of the night at MacDill Air Force Base.

A convoy of U.S. marshals took Castrillon-Henao to a Hillsborough County
jail, where he was photographed, fingerprinted and booked.

The Boat Seizures Begin

Castrillon-Henao and a number of relatives and former business associates
have become federal witnesses and have been instrumental in a long string
of cocaine seizures culminating in the arrest of Valencia- Trujillo.

The first involved a rusty old trawler with the name "Rebelde" - Spanish
for rebel - painted in faded orange letters on its bow. In its hold: 5 tons
of cocaine.

Based partly on information supplied by Castrillon-Henao, the U.S. Navy's
guided missile frigate Doyle spotted the Rebelde running without lights one
coal-black night in early 2000 in the eastern Pacific and took up station
behind it.

The Rebelde's captain caught sight of its silhouette in the first glow of
dawn and tried to run. The attempt was futile. The Rebelde was caught,
boarded and seized, then towed through the Panama Canal and across the Gulf
of Mexico to the Tampa Bay area.

Other seizures followed. The smugglers tried switching from trawlers, which
are slow and sluggish, to quicker and more maneuverable vessels called
"go-fast" boats. But that hasn't worked, either.

As of last count, authorities had arrested more than 175 people in
Operation Panama Express, mostly poor South American fishermen recruited by
Cali cartel middlemen, and seized or scuttled about 50 trawlers and speedboats.

Alias Threw Off Agents

In congressional testimony two years ago, William Ledwith, then the DEA's
chief of international operations, described the Cali cartel as "the most
powerful organized crime group in history."

The leaders of its rival Medellin cartel were better known, largely because
they were coarse and ruthless. But the Cali cartel was better organized,
more businesslike and more profitable.

Valencia-Trujillo allegedly began his rise into the cartel's senior ranks
about 1990, when the cartel was run by a pair of brothers, Gilberto and
Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela.

Under U.S. pressure, Colombia arrested the Rodriguez- Orejuela brothers in
1995, and both were sent to prison. Control of the cartel was thought to
have passed to Valencia-Trujillo. At the time he was in his mid-to late 30s.

At first, U.S. agents knew little about him. But using court- approved wire
intercepts, they discovered they had been chasing him for years without
realizing it. He had turned up in earlier cocaine seizures as the shipment
owner under an alias, Oscar Martinez.

One of those early seizures involved a freighter bound for Baltimore and
stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard in the Windward Passage off Cuba in 1992.
In its hold were 5 tons of cocaine. Witnesses testified later that the
shipper was Martinez.

When he was arrested Friday, Valencia-Trujillo was with his lawyer giving
Colombian prosecutors a sworn statement about that case. Under Colombian
law, such statements are one of the last requirements in a criminal
investigation.

He was taken to an undisclosed location to await a first court appearance.
Extraditing him from Colombia is expected to take about a year. He will be
brought to Tampa for trial.

Navarette and Aviles are expected to be extradited to Tampa for trial this
year.