ALLEGED HEAD OF CENTRAL FLA. DRUG RING ARRESTED

The suspected leader of a cocaine and marijuana smuggling ring that sold
about $8 million worth of drugs a year in central Florida has been arrested,
police said. Juan Alvarado, 42, and five other men were arrested Wednesday,
bringing the total number of arrests in this case to 16. Alvarado is the
alleged head of an organization that investigators estimate smuggled about
550 pounds of cocaine and 3,600 pounds of marijuana each year to central
Florida from Mexico.

Each of the six faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted on charges of
conspiracy to traffic cocaine and marijuana.

Police have arrested a total of 16 men in the investigation.

Alvarado, a Mexican national, is accused of smuggling the drugs across the
U.S. border from Reynosa, Mexico, to McAllen, Texas. The drugs were then
moved by truck to central Florida and sold to five mid-level drug dealers
from Alvarado's used car dealership, investigators said.

The middlemen then distributed the drugs to street dealers throughout Lake,
Marion, Orange, Seminole, and Volusia counties, as well as in Dade City and
Atlanta, agents said.

Officials are searching for 15 others linked to the drug ring, which has
been operating since the mid-1990's, investigators said.

``We still have a long way to go,'' said Lt. Bruce Parker, commander of the
Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation based in Orlando.

Authorities seized about $75,000 in cash and 21 firearms, mostly rifles,
semiautomatic weapons and handguns from four homes Wednesday. The ring often
took weapons as partial payment for drugs, then traded them and cash for
drugs in Mexico, investigators said.

Eleven pounds of cocaine and 25 pounds of marijuana have also been
confiscated, investigators said.

Also arrested Wednesday on were Lorenzo Rendon, 33, of Astatula; Jesus
Rodriguez, 26, of Mount Dora; Richard Lugo, 23, of Apopka; Benito Benavides,
21, of Zellwood; and Frank Edward Bunker, 70, who is accused of storing the
drugs on his 28-acre pine farm in Apopka.

The arrests have resulted from a nine-month investigation by the MBI, the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the U. S. Customs Service, the Office
of Statewide Prosecution, the Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Money
Laundering Task Force, and three central Florida police departments.