CARIBBEAN DRUG RAIDS NAB 2,331 SUSPECTS

WASHINGTON - Authorities join forces to launch an all-out offensive
targeting low-level drug operatives.

Arresting a record 2,331 suspected narcotics traffickers, law
enforcement agencies from the United States and other Western
Hemisphere nations have completed a massive bust they hope will at
least temporarily restrict the flow of illegal narcotics from the
Caribbean to Central and South America, officials announced Wednesday.

The yearlong investigation and 17-day sweep, dubbed Operation
Conquistador, corralled no high-level traffickers. But it represented
an unusual strategy for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, one
that DEA official Michael S. Vigil likened to a wide and destructive
storm.

``What we were looking at was creating, maximizing a complete
disruption,'' said Vigil, the special agent in charge of the DEA's
Caribbean Field Division. ``We really didn't target one specific
organization. It was anybody and everybody. We wanted to go in there
like a hurricane hitting the Caribbean.''

The effort was powered by technology that may seem commonplace in the
United States - a specially designed 28-country database and e-mail
network. But to the small Caribbean and Central American nations that
the DEA mentored through the investigation, it was a leap forward.

``Operation Conquistador is the direct result of unprecedented
cooperation between 26 nations united in a common goal,'' Attorney
General Janet Reno said in a prepared statement. ``These nations
reached across geographic, economic and cultural boundaries to fight
drug trafficking.''

Led by the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the
Coast Guard, the countries' law enforcement agencies blew across the
Caribbean, Central America and South America beginning March 10. They
eradicated coca fields, destroyed 94 cocaine laboratories, and
searched 7,300 vessels, vehicles, aircraft and homes. They hauled in
5,000 kilograms of cocaine, 56 kilograms of heroin, 14 kilograms of
morphine base, 362 metric tons of marijuana, 73 kilograms of hashish
oil and an array of drug-making chemicals.

About half of those arrested were from the Dominican Republic, which
has developed into a major shipment point for drugs coming from
Colombia to the United States, Vigil said. A quarter of those arrested
were Colombian nationals, he estimated. The intended destinations of
the drugs were the United States and Europe.

The arrests were made by police in their respective countries, with
the assistance of U.S. law enforcement. Local prosecutors will file
the cases in the countries where the arrests were made.

While the number of arrests was large, most drug traffickers are
replaced quickly by others drawn to the lucrative trade. What makes
Operation Conquistador notable is the DEA's mentoring of tiny law
enforcement agencies with little funding or expertise.

As part of a growing effort in the Caribbean and Central and South
America to interdict drugs coming from countries such as Colombia, the
countries asked to be part of the Unified Caribbean On-line Regional
Network, a DEA system that allowed countries with little
infrastructure or resources to exchange information on tactics,
strategy and investigative work.

Mexico and Peru, two nations whose role in drug trafficking is
substantive, have expressed interest in joining the network, Vigil
said.