DRUG ARREST MADE 8 YEARS LATER

Saturday, September 28, 2002 - GRAND JUNCTION - Authorities have arrested a
woman suspected of marijuana trafficking eight years after she was indicted.

Sally Sabori, 58, was being held Friday in the Mesa County Jail on $100,000
bail.

Sabori was one of nine people indicted by a grand jury after an
investigation uncovered a drug ring that imported nearly 1,000 pounds of
marijuana into Grand Junction every year between 1986 and 1994, authorities
said.

She and her husband, Manual Sabori, were arrested in Tucson, Ariz., in 1994
but failed to appear in court after being released on bail, said Mesa
County Assistant District Attorney Martha Kent.

Police arrested Sally Sabori Sept. 17 at her home. Manual Sabori remains at
large.

Sally Sabori faces charges of racketeering and conspiracy to distribute and
possess marijuana with intent to distribute. She also faces three special
offender counts. Arraignment was scheduled Oct. 2.

Authorities said Sally and Manual Sabori ran one end of the marijuana
distribution ring in Tucson while Sally Sabori's son, Ted Coca, ran the
other end in Clifton, just east of Grand Junction.

Coca and the Saboris were indicted in June 1994, as were Coca's wife, Rose;
Silverio Marquez-Quiz; Bobbie Jo Valdez; Travis Hardin and his wife Karen
Hardin; and David Rhode. Rhode lived in Mack, 20 miles west of Grand
Junction; the others in Clifton.

Rhode was found innocent. The other six either pleaded guilty or were
convicted of drug-related charges and received prison or
community-corrections sentences.