U.S. AGENTS SEIZE COCAINE AT L.I. HOUSE AND ARREST 5

GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Nov. 15 Agents with the United States Customs Service
seized 1,100 pounds of cocaine at a two-story house in Deer Park on Tuesday,
and officials said they believed it was one of the largest seizures of the
drug ever made on Long Island.

The authorities arrested five men in connection with the seizure, and
estimated that the street value of the cocaine was $120 million. They said
the shipment, labeled as vegetables in waxed cardboard cartons, originated
in Colombia and was trucked over the Mexican border before being taken to a
house at 12 Glasgow Avenue in Deer Park.

Victoria M. Ovis, an associate special agent in charge with the Customs
Service, said five men from Mexico had recently moved into the house on
Glasgow Avenue and had begun to set up a landscaping or gardening service.
The business was known as Victor Ponce Landscaping, named for one of the men
arrested this week, Victoriano Ponce. The men even had business cards made,
the authorities said.

"Everything they did was in furtherance of their illegal activity," Ms. Ovis
said. She added that the men's sole purpose was to establish a base from
which to traffic drugs on Long Island, in New York City and elsewhere in the
region. "So, that didn't leave much time to go out and cut lawns or plant
trees or anything like that," Ms. Ovis said.

Mr. Ponce, 43, and the four others, who had lived in Chicago and Los Angeles
before their arrival in Suffolk County, were each charged with conspiracy to
possess and distribute narcotics, the authorities said. The other suspects
were identified as Jorge Hernandez, 27; Asencion Gonzalez, 37; Thomas
Solis-Pacheco, 30; and Manuel Alejandro Felix-Rios, 30. All of the men
pleaded not guilty at their arraignment in Federal District Court in
Brooklyn today, and all were ordered held without bail. Only Mr. Gonzales
will have a bail hearing, on Monday.

According to court papers, a van rented from College Point, Queens, arrived
at the Glasgow Avenue house at 3:08 p.m. on Sunday and backed up to an
aluminum storage shed outside the house.

Mr. Ponce, who moved into the house on Sept. 22, and the others "moved in
and around the van and the shed" on Sunday night, the court papers said.
Once the van was returned to the office in Queens, agents of the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration tested it and found cocaine, the court
papers said.

Agents entered the house on Tuesday, arresting some of the men there and
arresting the others, who were also under surveillance, in Queens, Ms. Ovis
said.

She said the cocaine was packed in 21 boxes, some with "romaine" printed on
the outside. The investigators said they also seized $10,000 in cash, scales
for weighing drugs and other paraphernalia. They found cellular phones,
books and other records "which show the names, addresses and telephone
numbers of purchasers and suppliers of cocaine," the court papers said.

In August 1999, the police in New York City seized 1,566 pounds of cocaine
at a warehouse in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. At the time, that shipment was
valued at $89 million.