INTERNATIONAL RAIDS NAB 2,331 SUSPECTS

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 yesterday.

The year-long 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 drugmaking 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
(UNICORN), 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.