9 COLOMBIANS CONVICTED OF DRUG SMUGGLING

TAMPA - A federal jury on Tuesday convicted nine Colombians on cocaine
smuggling charges stemming from an investigation with the code name
Operation Panama Express. The convicted smugglers were arrested after the
Coast Guard and U.S. Navy stopped their fishing boat in the eastern Pacific
Ocean about 1,600 miles off the coast of Colombia on May 23.

After six days of trial, the nine defendants were convicted on two counts
each of drug smuggling and trafficking on the high seas.

They face a sentence of 20 years to life.

The Coast Guard found 6.5 tons of cocaine hidden inside the Colombian-
flagged fishing boat's main fuel tank.

Also Tuesday, a federal judge ordered four other Colombian men held for
trial on smuggling charges. In September, another four Colombians were
ordered held on the same charges.

The men ordered held Tuesday were caught Sept. 21 after they attempted to
evade Coast Guard and Navy vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean, officials
said.

They tossed bales of cocaine from their speed boat as they tried to escape,
federal prosecutors said. More than 1,300 pounds of cocaine was recovered.

The men indicted last month were caught in similar circumstances when their
speed boat was sighted by Navy and Coast Guard patrols Sept. 17, officials
said.

Prosecutors said the Coast Guard recovered nearly 2,900 pounds of cocaine
in bales the men tossed overboard as they fled.

All eight men could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison
with a maximum term of life.

The three cases are offshoots of Panama Express, an operation started about
30 months ago and based in Tampa. Its target is Colombia's Cali cartel.

Federal investigators learned cocaine smugglers switched from the heavily
patrolled Caribbean routes to the eastern Pacific as a pipeline for the drugs.

The operation has seized more than 125 tons of cocaine since it started.

"We feel this is putting more than a dent in their operation. We feel it's
putting a big hole," said Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's
office in Tampa.

The operation began after federal authorities struck a deal with Jose
Castrillon- Henao, allegedly a former Cali cartel kingpin.

Part of the plan, Cole said, is to cost the cartel cocaine and smugglers.

"We're hoping word gets back to Colombia that these people are looking at
spending the rest of their life in jail in the United States and it's not
worth the risk," he said.

Cole said he did not know where the cocaine seized in the three cases was
to be distributed but believed it was someplace in the United States.