U.S. CRUISER CHASES DOWN BOAT; COCAINE CARGO'S VALUE PUT AT $4.2 MILLION

A U.S. Navy cruiser intercepted a speedboat transporting 4,200 pounds
of cocaine off the Pacific Coast of Mexico April 26, and U.S.
authorities arrested five Colombian smuggling suspects aboard, it was
reported yesterday.

The drugs had an estimated street value of $4.2 million.

U.S. authorities said they believed that the smugglers planned to
unload the haul in Mexico for subsequent movement across the U.S. border.

The five suspects were arraigned in San Diego federal court
yesterday.

On April 26, the crew of a Navy helicopter attached to the San
Diego-based cruiser Valley Forge, a 567-foot warship, saw the unmarked
boat 400 miles south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec.

The helicopter crew directed the Valley Forge, which pursued the
speedboat, known in drug-trafficking circles as a "go-fast."

During the chase, the helicopter crew saw people aboard the boat
throwing overboard 70 bundles of what turned out to be cocaine,
authorities said.

The crew of the go-fast eventually stopped and gave up when they saw
that it could not outrun a 9,600-ton warship which can go faster than
30 knots. The speedboat appeared to be having mechanical problems,
said Jamie Devitt-Chacon, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Valley Forge's crew recovered 22 bundles or 1,400 pounds of
cocaine and arrested the five suspects. The unrecovered 48 bundles
would have boosted the total shipment to 4,200 pounds, U.S. officials
said.

A Coast Guard boarding party aboard the cruiser tried to retrieve the
listing speedboat, but it sank, Devitt-Chacon said.

The size of the haul may signal that a major Colombian drug
organization orchestrated the smuggling attempt, said Assistant U.S.
Attorney John Gomez.

The five suspects and the cocaine were transferred to the Coast Guard
cutter Alert, based in Astoria, Ore., which arrived in San Diego on
Wednesday. All were turned over to the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Coast Guard said.

Colombian officials have denied that the speedboat was registered in
their country, according to court documents.

In 1999, the Coast Guard seized a record 111,000 pounds of cocaine.
The previous record was set in 1997, when the agency seized an
estimated 103,000 pounds.

The five men arraigned in connection with the haul are: Pedro Jose
Renteria Caicedo, 43; Mario Murcia, 44; Hector Mayorga Garcia, 48;
Jose Luis Moriano Torres, 26; and Francisco Javier Diaz Caicedo, 34.