10 DRUG-SMUGGLING SUSPECTS NABBED AT SEA, LANDED IN FEDERAL COURT HERE

TAMPA - Ten Men Are Added to the Growing List of Sailors Arrested in the
Pacific and Brought to Tampa on Drug Charges

Ten more sailors found themselves sitting in a federal courtroom in a
foreign land Monday, listening as translators read an indictment accusing
them of hauling cocaine on the Pacific Ocean.

The men have been in U.S. custody since July 11, when Coast Guard officials
boarded their 76-foot fishing vessel in the eastern Pacific. The
interception, according to the indictment, resulted in the discovery of
more than 1/2 ton of cocaine.

It took 15 days for the Coast Guard to transport the men to Tampa, where
they join 30 other defendants arrested in what has become a perplexing
series of seizures being orchestrated by a multiagency federal task force.

In the past five months, prosecutors here have filed charges against 40
defendants, intercepted seven boats and seized nearly 18 tons of cocaine in
what the U.S. attorney's office will describe only as an ongoing investigation.

Federal authorities will not say what is leading them to make the seizures.

In all cases, the boats were intercepted in the eastern Pacific, usually
off the coast of Ecuador, thousands of miles from Tampa, and then brought
to Florida through the Panama Canal.

Both sides agree that the defendants didn't think they would end up in the
United States.

According to defense attorneys, most were hired from pools of men who
gather at docks looking for work aboard fishing vessels that often are at
sea for weeks at a time.

The 10 latest defendants are: Luis Fernando Roldan Velasquez, Franklin
Sanchez Aragon, Tito Plunio Sinisterra Solis, Ricardo Hurtado Gaitoto,
Pedro Caicado Murillo, Hipolito Morillo, Alexander Rascus Salazar, Rafael
Perez Norena, Jose Miguel Arias and Julio Cesar Diaz. Ages and hometowns
were not available.

If convicted, each faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison
and a maximum fine of $4 million.

The first public indication of the ongoing operation was in February when
the Coast Guard boarded the Rebelde, a trawler flying a Colombian flag, and
brought the crew to Tampa. The Rebelde allegedly was carrying nearly 5 tons
of cocaine.

A month later, authorities seized the Layneyd, a shrimper said to be
carrying nearly 4 tons of cocaine. Prosecutors acknowledged that those two
seizures were connected but declined to provide details.

Four speedboats were intercepted in the same general area last month.

The cases have resulted in a host of legal questions about whether the
government had proper jurisdiction to board the vessels. Attorneys for
several of the sailors have said the prosecution effort amounts to "piracy
on the high seas." The court has not ruled on any of the defense challenges.