AREA HAD FEATURES MAKING IT PERFECT FOR DRUG SMUGGLERS

A sleepy community of high-priced homes and slow-paced lifestyles, Punta
Gorda Isles is the perfect spot for retirees, well-to-do vacationers -- and
drug smugglers.

The 4,000-home subdivision is filled with senior snowbirds who keep to
themselves. The biggest controversy this year involved a pool cage built
too close to a sea wall.

Residents regularly take many vacations, leaving their homes for weeks at a
time. Most have manicured lawns and two-car garages. Many have boats.

All of this made the Isles a perfect spot for James Horton, 68, and Gail
Mathews, 56, as they searched for a spot to dock a yacht carrying a
half-ton of cocaine, federal Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman Brent Eaton
said.

"They fit right in there," Eaton said. "It's a very nice neighborhood where
boats come and go very quietly. I don't think the neighbors ever would've
noticed them."

Horton, from Orlando, and Mathews, from Fort Lauderdale, were arrested
Tuesday at a home in the 2500 block of Rio Lisbo Court. An Australian and
three Colombians were also arrested at the home. They were all charged with
smuggling more than $8 million worth of cocaine, and were being held in the
Lee County jail Wednesday without bail.

Several factors make communities like the Isles increasingly attractive to
drug smugglers.

Until the mid-1990s, most cocaine was flown from South America, where it is
produced, into Mexico, then hauled overland through the porous border. A
crackdown on organized crime in Mexico and stepped-up border patrols are
forcing smugglers to seek alternate routes.

Routes through the Caribbean and into Florida have become increasingly
popular.

Five years ago, 60 percent of the cocaine entering the country came through
Mexico into California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; today 60 percent
comes into Florida.

"If the route is blocked in one area they seek another path, and at the
moment that seems to be here," Eaton said.

Shipments arriving in southern Florida are quickly distributed northward
through the state and up the Eastern seaboard.

"We're just the gateway," Eaton said.

Horton and Mathews had similar distribution plans, Eaton said. The pair
rented a house in the 5200 block of Boyle Terrace, Gulf Cove, to use as a
distribution point, he said.

The Gulf Cove house is similar to the Isles home. It has a pool backed by a
canal and is situated in a quiet community where closed-door neighbors are
commonplace.

Neighbor Lucinda Eddleman said Mathews and another woman have been renting
the Gulf Cove house for six months, using it sporadically. The rent is
$1,100 a month.

"They were just very, very quiet, no-see-'em people," Eddleman said. "They
were good neighbors. They didn't bother anyone."

Neighbors in the Isles saw even less of Horton and Mathews. Horton rented
the house several months ago, yet several neighbors said they thought it
was vacant.

The pair also rented a third home in the Murdock area. It had been vacant
for weeks.

With money probably from past drug deals, the group was well-financed and
equipped, Eaton said. The 60-foot, trawler-style boat, Chazmania, dwarfs
other boats in the Isles canal.

With their luxury boat and deep pockets, Mathews and Horton blended right
in at the Isles.

"A lot of people there are wealthy, retired people with two homes," Eaton
said. "That's probably cover that they were trying to create."