CRUCIAL WIRETAP EVIDENCE EXCLUDED

Drug-Trafficking Trial Faces Uncertain Future

TAMPA - A Hillsborough County judge dealt a potentially devastating
setback to a massive cocaine-trafficking investigation Friday,
throwing out crucial wiretap evidence because police violated rules.

"We believe it means the dismissal of the entire case," said
Assistant Public Defender Michael Connell, who represents Luis
Alfredo Vargas Sr., one of approximately 60 people charged to date.
"It's a rather large victory for us."

Prosecutors said Vargas is part of a group of Puerto Ricans who
trafficked 345 pounds of cocaine, with a street value of more than $2
million, from October 1999 to June 2000. Vargas is charged with drug
trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy, and faces 15 years in
prison if convicted, said Connell.

Vargas, who is free on bail, lives in Tampa and works as a carpenter,
records show.

Connell asked Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett to suppress evidence
from a police wiretap of Vargas' cellphone. Padgett did so over the
objections of a prosecutor who sought to downplay wiretap problems.

Padgett said there were "big problems - and I'll underline the word
big" with the electronic surveillance.

Among other things, he said, Tampa police didn't seal the wiretap
recordings once the surveillance ended, leaving the recordings open
to possible tampering.

Assistant State Attorney Dana Friedlander said the recordings weren't
sealed for more than a year. However, she said a detective kept the
recordings in a locked safe during that time.

Vargas, 53, was the first defendant subjected to a wiretap. That
wiretapping led to electronic surveillance of other defendants,
Connell said, eventually producing one of the county's largest
wiretap investigations.

Connell said his client is the "first domino" in the investigation:
"When he falls, all the others fall."

At least one other defense attorney involved in the case agreed that
the investigation is on shaky ground.

Prosecutors may seek to salvage the case by appealing Padgett's
ruling or proceeding without the wiretap evidence. Some defendants
already have pleaded guilty in the case and could testify for the
state.

"We haven't decided yet whether to appeal," said Assistant State
Attorney Pam Bondi. "We will be evaluating the facts and evidence
regarding each individual defendant."

Connell says he doesn't believe any defendant will go to trial.

"There's no way to untangle this mess," he said. "There were just
some blatant violations of the wiretap statutes. You don't have to be
a lawyer to get these wiretaps thrown out."

Connell refused to blame police, the judges who approved the wiretaps
or the current administration in the state attorney's office.

Rather, Connell said, the administration of former State Attorney
Harry Lee Coe III didn't supervise wiretap investigations and didn't
instruct law enforcement on conducting electronic surveillance.

He said that lack of supervision also led to problems in the
electronic surveillance of Steve and Marlene Aisenberg over the
unsolved disappearance of their daughter, Sabrina, in 1997.

The U.S. attorney's office dropped its case against the Aisenbergs
after a federal magistrate said sheriff's detectives misled a judge
when seeking permission to place listening devices in the couple's
home.