COCAINE SMUGGLERS SENTENCED TO PRISON

TAMPA -- Seven South American sailors caught in the dragnet of a major
federal drug investigation were sentenced Thursday to lengthy prison terms
for trying to smuggle cocaine into the United States.

The men were aboard a speedboat seized by the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy in
the Pacific off South America. Authorities found three-quarters of a ton of
cocaine on the boat and in water nearby,

The vessel was one of more than a dozen loaded with cocaine worth hundreds
of millions of dollars that authorities have seized in the past 18 months.
The investigation, code-named Operation Panama Express, is aimed at
toppling the leaders of Colombia's notorious Cali cartel.

U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. delivered the sentences as follows:
Manuel Antes Garces, 9 years; Silvio Orejuela Ceron, 5 years, 10 months;
Jesus Alberto Barrasa Mesa, 10 years, 1 month; Livio Rengifo Revelo, 13
years, 3 months; Nargel Paredes, Luis Eduardo Martinez Renteria and Luis
Miguel Porto-Carredo Estupinan, 11 years, 3 months. All had previously
pleaded guilty to drug charges.