POLICE EVACUATE COLLEGE, ARREST FLEEING DRUG SUSPECT

MIAMI - Police evacuated a college campus near downtown on Friday after an
armed drug suspect fled into its main building while being chased by U.S.
Customs agents, who fired one shot at the man, authorities said.

Miami Police Department's SWAT team searched Miami- Dade Community
College's medical campus for about six hours before arresting Ray Obi, who
authorities said was part of a drug-smuggling operation involving a Royal
Caribbean cruise ship.

Twelve other people were arrested earlier and 4.4 pounds of cocaine seized,
customs agents said.

Obi ran into the college about 12:30 p.m. after he fled customs agents who
were trying to arrest him on cocaine trafficking charges, Special Agent
Zach Mann said.

As Obi ran toward the building, he pointed a gun at a pursuing agent as
they turned into an alley. The agent fired a shot and missed. Obi ran into
the building and disappeared, Mann said.

Officers surrounded the building and evacuated hundreds of students and
employees. Obi was found hiding on the roof in the air conditioning unit,
police said.

"When the city of Miami police told him to come out, he jokingly said, 'I
have been up here so long I kind of like it,'" Mann said. He surrendered
without incident. He will be charged with conspiracy to smuggle cocaine,
and possibly a weapons charge and fleeing arrest, Mann said.

No one was injured.

Agents had been trying to arrest Obi and another man as part of their
investigation of a cocaine smuggling operation, Mann said.

Agents said they found the cocaine in the belongings of two passengers
exiting the Splendor of the Seas. The Royal Caribbean cruise ship had
returned to the Port of Miami after an 11-day cruise to Mexico, the Cayman
Islands, Aruba, Jamaica and Curacao.

The two passengers identified five other passengers who were part of the
conspiracy, which was to eventually bring 110 pounds of cocaine into the
United States, Mann said.

Some of those suspects identified two Royal Caribbean employees - a
Jamaican waiter and a Honduran assistant waiter - and a longshoreman who
were to remove the cocaine from the ship, Mann said. They were arrested.

The employees have been fired, said Royal Caribbean spokesman Michael
Sheehan. He said passengers' bags are checked every time they return to the
ship. Employees are patted down when they return to the ship and their
rooms are periodically searched.

An investigation will be launched to determine how the cocaine was smuggled
aboard, Sheehan said.

Mann said the employees identified a driver in the parking lot who was to
take them to a courier. The driver was arrested.

Soon the agents made contact with the courier, who told them to meet him at
a fast-food restaurant at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Mann said.