DID DEA INFORMANTS SWINDLE DRUG LORDS?

Millions In Cash Allegedly Taken

BOGOTA, Colombia -- No one disputes that Baruch Jairo Vega possesses
the nerves of steel and savvy manner required of anyone who does
business with international drug traffickers.

The question is whether Vega was audacious enough, or crazy enough, to
snooker some of Colombia's biggest drug dealers out of millions of
dollars and pocket the money. Or -- his version -- whether he instead
performed extraordinary work as a confidential informant for the DEA
and the FBI, and maybe the CIA, bringing the U.S. government both
sought-after drug lords and cash.

Among those with the biggest stake in the answers are two Drug
Enforcement Administration agents who oversaw Vega as he zigzagged
between Miami and Panama in recent months to haggle with top Colombian
drug dealers. Both agents are suspended with pay and under
investigation.

In the end, a federal judge hearing the case against Vega, who faces
money laundering charges, will have to sort out the truth. But much of
the improbable saga of the Miami Beach resident and his connections to
the drug trade is already being told in court documents and attorneys'
statements.

It is the story of huge piles of money and possible secret deals
between the U.S. Justice Department and Colombian drug traffickers.
Some Colombian officials say the deals lured drug lords to get out of
the narcotics business, pay huge fines, and rat on colleagues in
exchange for lenient U.S. treatment.

In Colombia, there is even a nickname for the group of drug barons
allegedly involved with Vega -- the cartel de los sapos, or "Cartel of
the Snitches."

Although there are many unanswered questions, some Colombian
authorities seem inclined to believe in the existence of an official,
U.S.-sponsored operation.

For one thing, they have heard numerous tales of drug lords paying
millions of dollars to Vega for what they believed was his official
role in helping confessed drug traffickers get their records wiped
clean by striking cooperation agreements with U.S. prosecutors and
forfeiting half their wealth.

They also find it hard to believe that some of the world's most shrewd
and most vicious criminals could be duped by a con man. "Either the
narcos are stupid or this operation had some legitimacy," a Colombian
intelligence official said, asking to remain unnamed.

Vega was the far more experienced of two Colombian-born informants who
were arrested March 22 in South Florida. The FBI said Vega and the
second man, Roman Suarez Lopez, conjured up "phony cooperation deals"
with indicted and suspected Colombian drug lords, as DEA agents waited
in adjoining hotel rooms.

"According to sources who have spoken with several of these drug
traffickers, Vega and Suarez's fees have ranged from $6 million to
$100 million," the criminal complaint says. It details how at least $6
million was paid to the two men by narco-traffickers, and says they
received an additional "several million dollars in drug proceeds."

CHARGES FILED

The complaint portrays the two men as rogue snitches who became
"intermittent" sources of information for federal agencies. It charges
them with money laundering and obstruction of justice.

The two men went free on $100,000 bond May 12. Neither man would speak
to The Herald, but their attorneys said their actions were sponsored
by U.S. government agents.

"Let me tell you, whatever [Vega] did, he did with the understanding,
knowledge and agreement of the DEA agents. This was a Baruch Vega
joint venture with the DEA," said Nelson Rodriguez-Varela, his attorney.

Suarez's lawyer, Ruben Oliva, said his client and Vega concocted a
plan under DEA auspices to lure drug traffickers into meetings and
received money with DEA knowledge.

"If it was a scam, it was like any scam that a [confidential
informant] perpetrates on a criminal target," Oliva said.

Both in their 50s, Vega and Suarez were born in Colombia. They have
lived in South Florida for decades.

LINKS TO AGENCIES

Baruch Vega, a professional photographer with a smooth manner, had
long-standing ties with law enforcement agencies and even boasted of
working for the CIA, the complaint says. He was the leader among the
two men.

"Baruch is very slick, but he has to be," said an acquaintance, who
noted Vega's frequent dealings with major Colombian drug smugglers.

"His whole world is deception," said Joseph Rosenbaum, a Miami lawyer
for Larry E. Castillo, a DEA agent suspended with pay following Vega's
arrest. Also suspended was Castillo's DEA supervisor, David Tinsley.

After nearly two decades as an informant, mostly for the FBI, Vega
came into his heyday when Colombia's Congress ended a six-year ban on
extradition of drug traffickers in late 1997. That move paved the way
for U.S. authorities to seek to bring more drug lords to U.S. prisons.
Colombian drug traffickers fear nothing more than U.S. jails, and both
Vega and U.S. law enforcement officials apparently saw an opportunity
to strike cooperation deals with the narcos.

One Colombian who reportedly reached such an agreement, art dealer
Arturo Piza, was gunned down in Medellin early last year, apparently
in retaliation for a cooperation pact. But a surprising number of drug
traffickers has apparently sought to reach similar deals since then
with U.S. authorities, often working through Vega.

Neither the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Florida nor the DEA would
talk about such alleged agreements or about Baruch Vega and Roman Suarez.

"No comment," said Rosa Rodriguez Mera of the U.S. Attorney's
Office.

31 SEIZED IN RAID

A spark for the deals came with Operation Millennium, a massive
DEA-sponsored raid in Colombia and Mexico in mid-October that netted
31 people, including Fabio Ochoa, a former leader of the Medellin
Cartel. All 31 now await extradition to the United States.

As a result, Colombian drug criminals were forced to consider whether
they might someday face extradition themselves -- their worst
nightmare. Enter Vega.

According to flight records, he flew between 10 and 12 times from
South Florida to Panama to hold meetings with Colombian drug
traffickers -- mainly from the Northern Valley Cartel and from
remnants of the Medellin Cartel -- to seek alleged cooperation
agreements, several sources close to Vega said.

On those trips, Vega and Suarez were usually accompanied by a coterie
of DEA agents, local police officers, South Florida criminal lawyers
- -- and a fashion model or two.

Panamanian aviation records seen by The Herald indicate that
Miami-based DEA agent Castillo was nearly always along. Also joining
the group on occasion were Bill Gomez, a Miami-Dade Police Department
narcotics officer; Daniel Forman, a criminal defense attorney in
Miami; and Carlos Ramon Zapata, a 34-year-old suspected Colombian
cocaine trafficker who apparently has struck a deal with U.S.
prosecutors that leaves him enjoying his freedom at a high-rise on the
southern tip of Miami Beach.

Ramon and Gomez could not be located for comment. Forman did not
return repeated messages left at his office. Castillo declined through
his attorney to speak to a Herald reporter.

MEETING IN PANAMA

Just two weeks after the Operation Millennium arrests, on Nov. 1, Vega
and Suarez hosted a meeting at the Panama City hotel with a drug
trafficker who is a cooperating witness in an ongoing drug probe in
Colombia, the complaint says.

"Vega told the [cooperating witness] that he had U.S. officials in the
hotel room next door and arranged for the [cooperating witness] to
meet with them," it says. "The [cooperating witness] then met with
four DEA agents and a Miami police officer."

According to the complaint, Vega and Suarez told visiting drug lords
that they had the clout to bribe Justice Department officials, set up
phony cooperation agreements and arrange for the drug barons to "not
serve a single day in jail" -- in exchange for huge sums of money.

One alleged drug lord, Carlos Julio Correa, lured other traffickers to
Vega and Suarez, vouching for their legitimacy and showing off the
U.S. visa he had reportedly obtained through them.

"When he began to enter and leave the United States without any
problems, the other narcos saw this and got interested," the Colombian
intelligence official said, noting that Vega and Suarez appeared to
have great clout.

Adding spice to the frequent flights Vega made to Panama were some of
Colombia's most alluring models.

SOCIAL OCCASION

On a flight Dec. 8 between Panama City's Tocumen International Airport
and South Florida, Suarez and Vega were joined by Natalia Paris,
Colombia's most widely known fashion model, flight records show.

Between drinks and socializing, Vega and Suarez reeled in some of the
major smugglers of the Northern Valley and Medellin cartels, including
Juan Usuga, Oscar Eduardo Campuzano and others, their attorneys said.

"[Vega] brought in Orlando Sanchez Cristancho. He brought in the
Usugas. He brought in El Medico," said Rodriguez-Varela, Vega's
attorney, referring to the nickname used by Carlos Ramon. "He was in
the process of working a number of others."

If such traffickers genuinely collaborated with U.S. prosecutors, it
would be a major coup against the Colombian cocaine trade, Colombian
officials say.

In what has been interpreted as a sign that deals for cooperation are
being struck, U.S. prosecutors have allowed several accused major
traffickers to go free on bond in South Florida after their capture.
Those alleged Colombian traffickers include Juan Usuga, Carlos Ramon
and Carlos Julio Correa. Others in the so-called "Cartel of the
Snitches" remain in Colombia, protected by the 8,000-man, right-wing
army run by Carlos Castano, who has declared all-out war against
leftist guerrillas.

COCA CONNECTION

Both the guerrillas and Castano's militias receive financing from
farmers of coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, although Castano says
he is now actively trying to help the U.S. counterdrug effort. In an
e-mail to a Herald reporter last month, Castano touched on the issue
of narcotics traffickers cooperating with the U.S. justice system.

"Drug traffickers are surrendering voluntarily to U.S. justice. As
long as this doesn't lead to impunity, it is the best way to end
narco-trafficking without violence," Castano wrote.

In a follow-up e-mail, Castano said through an intermediary that he is
pressuring traffickers to strike deals with U.S. prosecutors, and that
he will seek eradication of coca once his combatants rout leftist guerrillas.

The issue now is whether Vega and Suarez struck up a private scheme on
the side to defraud drug traffickers of huge sums of money.

According to the complaint against the two men, they collected one
payment of $1 million "near the Miami International Airport" in early
January, and Vega received $3 million in New York City a month earlier.

In a separate instance, one of Colombia's biggest alleged drug
traffickers, Hernando Gomez, who is known as "Rasguno," or "Scratch,"
paid $5 million to Vega, the intelligence official said.

SCAM DENIED

Vega's attorney denies that his client scammed narcos.

"He didn't make millions of dollars," Rodriguez-Varela said, adding
that much of the money went to finance DEA operations that resulted in
"bringing in these heavyweights," referring to narcotics
traffickers.

Vega and Suarez were under DEA supervision, he said.

"They should not blame Baruch Vega for actions of agents who may have
been overzealous," he said.

The attorney for Castillo, the suspended DEA agent, differs sharply on
what the two Colombian-born informants did.

"They used their position as confidential informants . . . to enrich
themselves without the knowledge of the agents," Rosenbaum said.