U.S. SEIZES TONS OF COCAINE FROM FISHING BOAT

Law Enforcement : The 8.8-Ton Haul Is Part Of An Especially Productive
Week For The Coast Guard's Anti-Drug Effort.

SAN DIEGO--U.S. authorities unloaded an 8.8-ton shipment of cocaine
Sunday that was found on a rusty fishing boat off the coast of Mexico.
It was the government's fourth-largest such seizure ever.

A Navy destroyer with a Coast Guard law enforcement unit on board
stopped the boat, with a crew of 10 men, 250 miles west of the resort
city of Acapulco, and towed it to San Diego.

The Feb. 24 seizure capped what the Coast Guard called one of the most
productive weeks of anti-drug patrols in its history.

In six days, the Coast Guard--from Miami to the Caribbean, and in the
Pacific from Mexico to Washington state--seized 28,845 pounds of
cocaine, about what it captured in all of 1996.

"We've never had a week like this where our border has been assaulted
all the way from the Bahamas to Seattle," Cmdr. Jim McPherson of the
Coast Guard said.

On Sunday, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta praised the anti-drug
effort.

"Those engaged in drug trafficking are attempting to penetrate all of
our borders," he said near a Coast Guard pier, where the 8.8 tons of
cocaine in large blocks were stacked neatly on wooden pallets.

The 10 men captured along with the Belize-flagged boat, the Forever My
Friend, will face drug smuggling charges that carry a minimum 10-year
sentence and a maximum of life in prison, U.S. Atty. Gregory Vega said.
They were to appear today in federal court in San Diego.

Eight of the men are from Nicaragua, one is from El Salvador and one
from Ukraine. The cocaine was hidden in a secret compartment, buried
under ice and fresh fish, authorities said.

Agents wearing surgical masks, gloves and protective white jumpsuits
spent Sunday morning unloading the blocks of cocaine from the Forever My
Friend. Federal agents with automatic weapons at the ready guarded it on
the pier.

The string of recent seizures reflects a general increase in the amount
of cocaine seized at sea by the Coast Guard working with the Navy, the
Customs Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal
agencies.

In 1999, the Coast Guard seized a record 55 tons of cocaine, which broke
the previous high of 40.7 tons. Then in 2000, the agency captured 66
tons.

The Coast Guard estimates it catches only a small fraction of U.S.-bound
cocaine, which is generally produced in Colombia and shipped either
through the Caribbean or via the Pacific to Mexico to be smuggled
overland into the United States.

"We've put a dent in it, but we certainly haven't cut off the flow or
driven the price of cocaine through the roof," said Capt. Joseph Conroy,
chief of the agency's law enforcement division.

Navy ships on anti-drug patrols travel with Coast Guard contingents on
board because the U.S. military is prohibited from conducting law
enforcement activities. The Coast Guard, which is part of the
Transportation Department, faces no such restriction.

Among the recent cocaine seizures were 5,154 pounds captured on a
Canadian trawler off Seattle on Feb. 21 and 3,920 pounds on a small
power boat north of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Feb. 25.

In all, 24 people were arrested from Feb. 21 to Feb. 27.