ALLEGED DRUG BARON HELD IN FLORIDA

`Major Blow' To Cocaine Cartel

WASHINGTON -- An alleged Colombian drug kingpin who used an armada of 10
commercial freighters to ship 68 tons of cocaine to South Florida and Europe
is under arrest, federal drug agents announced Saturday.

Authorities described the capture of Ivan De La Vega, 48, by police in
Venezuela as cutting off ``the head of the snake'' and said it was a ``major
blow'' to the Colombian drug trade, which exports an estimated 300 tons of
cocaine each year.

Over the past three years, De La Vega's ring bought or leased mostly Greek
freighters to transport drugs in hidden compartments from the coast of
Colombia to Miami, Fort Lauderdale and such European ports as Amsterdam,
authorities said. The ships would hover 100 miles off the Colombian coast
and receive their illegal cargo from high-powered cigarette boats speeding
from jungle manufacturing plants along the shore.

Crews of the freighters were paid from $30,000 for the captain to $3,000 for
deck hands to smuggle the drugs, according to seized logs. Most of the
cocaine was delivered to Europe, a more profitable market where the street
price of a kilogram is $50,000. The same amount costs $1,700 in Colombia and
$25,000 in the United States, agents said.

U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the ring was unique because
of the ``staggering amount'' of drugs -- worth $3 billion on the street --
that were being shipped and the ``expansive reach'' of the organization to
12 countries: Colombia, the United States, Albania, Belgium, France, Greece,
Italy, the Netherlands, Panama, Spain, Great Britain and Venezuela.

VENEZUELAN ARREST

De La Vega was arrested by Venezuelan authorities on Aug. 16 along with Luis
Antonio Navia, described as a ``major investor'' wanted on prior drug
trafficking charges in the United States. The pair was handed over to U.S.
authorities in Miami three days later where they were charged with
conspiring to traffic cocaine.

Zack Mann, U.S. Customs spokesman, said De La Vega, a Colombian citizen, and
Navia, a Cuban national with U.S. residency status, are being held in the
Federal Detention Center in Miami.

The two face federal drug charges in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale.
Navia was a fugitive wanted on a drug case out of Tampa, Mann said.

``The two were brought here because the venue on conspiracy charges to
import cocaine in 1998 and 1999 originated in South Florida,'' Mann said.

Mann said the two will be arraigned early next week.

4 TONS OF COCAINE

U.S. authorities waited for Venezuelan police to raid a storage facility
with more than four tons of cocaine last week before announcing the arrests.

Another 41 suspects, including crew members of the freighters, have been
arrested in several countries, authorities said.

Over a two-year investigation, more than 24 tons of cocaine, worth about $1
billion, were seized from five ships headed for U.S. and European ports by a
Customs, DEA and Coast Guard task force monitoring the deliveries.

The 68-ton estimate was based on what informants involved in the shipping
told authorities was delivered over the past three years.

`A MAJOR BLOW'

``Certainly this is a major blow to the Colombian cartels in the short
term,'' Kelly said.

``But no one is claiming victory in the war on drugs. We're never going to
seize or arrest our way out of the drug problem.''

The case began with a tip from British intelligence. The smugglers tried to
conceal their activities with normal cargoes.

The largest single cocaine seizure was from a ship named the Castor that
yielded more than four tons June 8, 1999.

Leaving dry dock in Santo Domingo in March of that year, the Castor traveled
to Vera Cruz, Mexico, before arriving in Miami, where it was seized.