SAUDI PRINCE ACCUSED IN DRUG SMUGGLING CASE

FLORIDA -- A Saudi prince used diplomatic immunity to smuggle more than 2
tons of cocaine from South America to Europe on his airplane in a
trafficking conspiracy in which paintings were used to pay for drugs, U.S.
officials said. The Saudi worked with Colombians and a real estate agent in
Miami to ship cocaine from Caracas to Paris in 1999, the officials said.

An affidavit described Nayef bin Sultan bin Fawwaz al-Shaalan as "a prince
in the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, but who is not in direct accession to
the throne."

The Saudi Embassy denied that al-Shaalan is in the royal family and said it
had not heard of him.