HUGE DRUG HAUL SHOWS SMUGGLING'S NEW TRENDS

Cocaine: Officials Point To Record Maritime Seizure As Evidence That
Illicit Operations Are Growing More Elaborate And Using The Pacific Ocean
As A Route.

SAN DIEGO -- Officials announcing a record seizure of cocaine Monday said
the haul--13 tons in a trawler crewed by Spanish-speaking Russian and
Ukrainian sailors--illustrates some of the latest trends in drug smuggling.

The Coast Guard and other agencies are seeing larger loads, more creative
attempts at concealment, crew members from outside South America, and
increased use of the Pacific as a drug-running route since interdiction
efforts in the Caribbean have increased.

"It's a cat-and-mouse game," said Vice Adm. Ray Riutta, commander of the
Coast Guard's Pacific Area. "They're becoming bolder, more desperate."

At 26,397 pounds, the clandestine cache aboard the Svesda Maru, a 152-foot
trawler flying the flag of Belize, is the largest drug seizure in maritime
history, officials said at a dockside news conference.

The cutter Active towed the trawler to the Coast Guard dock at the 32nd
Street Naval Station on Sunday. The trawler had been stopped 1,500 miles
south of San Diego under terms of an international drug-fighting agreement.

Officials are exploring whether there is a connection between Russian
organized crime and Tijuana's murderous Arellano-Felix drug cartel.

With more than four months remaining in the fiscal year, Coast Guard and
Navy interdiction efforts have resulted in the seizure of 110,000 pounds of
drugs, approaching the 122,000 pounds seized during the 12 months of the
previous fiscal year.

On March 4, another Belize-flagged fishing ship, the Forever My Friend,
with 8.8 tons of cocaine, was towed into San Diego after being seized 250
miles west of Acapulco.

Officials believe the Svesda Maru was loaded with cocaine in Colombia and
was bound for a clandestine docking in Mexico so that the shipment could
continue its journey to the U.S. by truck, car or rail.

Two Russians and 10 Ukrainians were charged with drug smuggling and jailed
at the federal prison in downtown San Diego.

Coast Guard officials said trawler crewmen were mightily annoyed when a
heavily armed Coast Guard boarding party would not let them continue
enjoying the trawler's ample supply of whiskey.

There were some language difficulties between the Coast Guard crew members
and the crew of the Svesda Maru, but the whiskey request was easily
answered: Nyet.