CAMDEN TRIAL PUTTING HEAT ON MAYOR

Milton Milan says drug allegations against him are lies. They have
come up in a case against two others.

Camden Mayor Milton Milan is not a defendant in the drug-conspiracy
trial unfolding in U.S. District Court, but his lawyer says Milan is
the one being punished.

In the two weeks since the trial began, Milan has been a frequent
subject of prosecution testimony. A convicted drug dealer identified
Milan as having purchased parts of two big shipments of cocaine
destined for the streets of Camden in 1993.

An FBI agent then testified that Milan's signature was on a $2,500
promissory note for a 1992 loan from defendant Jose Luis "J.R."
Rivera, who is accused of being the financier of the city's most
notorious drug organization. One confessed drug dealer said that
Milan's construction company had built a garage for Rivera, and that
Rivera had boasted of having bankrolled Milan's mayoral campaign;
another drug dealer said Milan had falsified documents to help that
dealer recoup alleged drug money that authorities had seized.

Milan, 37, a Democrat who is Camden's first Latino mayor, has
dismissed testimony that he was involved in drug transactions as
fiction concocted by "losers trying to get lighter sentences" in
return for their testimony.

He said he would not comment on accusations made by drug dealers.
"I've been to hell and back. I've looked at death in the face, and I
can tell you that words alone will not hurt me," said Milan, who
became mayor in 1997.

The drug-conspiracy case has raised anew the extraordinary question of
whether the mayor of a city with 160 known drug corners was involved
in drug dealing before he entered public life.

The question came up during the mayoral campaign when, according to
two of Milan's opponents, Camden residents said Milan had been
involved in drug dealing and when an anonymous flyer broached the subject.

The question also came up after a task force examining unsolved
murders in Camden reopened the investigation of a 1988 drug-related
homicide in which Milan had been questioned as a suspect. Milan denied
any involvement in the shooting and has not been charged.

There is no disagreement on whether Milan knew drug dealers. But there
is conflict among people who were drug dealers and others about
whether Milan was involved in drug dealing.

Convicted drug dealer Camildo Cruz testified this month that Milan had
bought part of a 10-kilogram cocaine shipment from a convicted drug
dealer named Luis Soto in 1993. (A kilogram equals about 2.2 pounds.)

Cruz said Milan also had bought part of a separate 20-kilogram
shipment.

Another convicted drug dealer, Angel Torres, testified that he had
delivered several ounces of cocaine to "Milton" in 1993 - a reference
that Milan's lawyer said was to Milan.

In a 1997 interview with The Inquirer, Soto said he had never sold
drugs to Milan. "I don't know nothing about Milton Milan," he said.

The testimony by Cruz and Torres came during the trial of Rivera, 40,
a Camden businessman, and Luis "Tun Tun" Figueroa, 37, who are accused
of operating the city's largest drug organization during a 10-year
period that ended in 1998. Authorities say the ring supplied buyers
from Philadelphia, South Jersey and beyond.

In an interview with The Inquirer, convicted drug dealer Luis Medina
said that during the late 1980s, Milan distributed cocaine to
street-level sellers and picked up the profits.

He said Milan had operated in the area of Fifth and York Streets in
North Camden, the neighborhood where Milan spent his early years.

"Everybody that knows him for so many years . . . seen him on the
corner," Medina, 36, said last week. He said he had supplied Milan
with cocaine in quantities that ranged from four to nine ounces in
1987-88. "It was never like his personal corner. It was just where
everybody got a little piece of the rock. It was a real hot commodity."

Medina, who once employed Milan at a shoe store he operated, said
Milan had started out selling $20 bags of cocaine with a green dot on
the bag near Fifth and State Streets. Medina said he had "watched him
sell many times."

He said he had declined to cooperate with investigators who wanted to
interview him about Milan's alleged involvement.

Medina scoffed at Milan's denials on drug dealing.

"That's just like the President saying he didn't have a sexual
relationship with Monica Lewinsky. That's the same way with Milton,"
Medina said.

Medina said he faced up to his own drug past. "It's like if people ask
me was I an ex-drug dealer, I'm not going to lie about it. He [Milan]
could say, 'Yeah, I was out there on the corner selling drugs, and I
saw the light. I was just one of the people who didn't get caught.'
"

Medina said that when he learned that Milan had been elected to City
Council in November 1995, he believed that Milan had put his drug past
behind him, and Medina said he was happy.

"I was proud of him for the simple fact that there's not too many
people that we see that achieve to a standard like that. So by me
seeing him achieve that, I felt good. I was proud," said Medina.

Maribel Alvarado, a Camden resident who grew up with Milan, said she
remembered Milan hanging out at Fifth and York Streets - but not
dealing drugs.

She said the corner was a popular hangout during the 1980s. "That was
just the happening scene," said Alvarado, who said neighborhood teens
would gather there and then head to a nearby diner where drug dealers
would use their profits to buy food and drinks for everyone.

Alvarado, like many of Milan's supporters, said she did not believe
that the mayor's past - whatever it was - was relevant.

"Everybody just keeps haunting him with the past," said Alvarado, who
counsels troubled Camden teens.

Federal prosecutors have declined to comment on any aspect of the
Milan investigation or to address any questions about the courtroom
accusations about Milan - including why no charges were filed against
him.

Generally, prosecutors have credibility concerns about statements from
drug dealers, and there is often serious debate about dealers' testimony.

And in the case of Milan, the information that has surfaced focuses on
alleged events going back six to 10 years and has not been
corroborated by any of the video surveillance going on at key drug
areas around 1991, said the mayor's attorney, Carlos A. Martir Jr.

Philadelphia criminal-defense attorney A. Charles Peruto Sr. said
relying on drug dealers as witnesses was risky for prosecutors. Such
witnesses often have plea agreements and criminal records, he said,
and that just adds to the underlying problem that they are admitted
drug dealers.

"When you combine all these things, I think it would be difficult for
any person to be prosecuted. When you add to that he's a public
official, then certainly the guy got elected . . . and [voters] are
the people who constitute the jury," Peruto said.

He said such factors, coupled with possible statute-of-limitation
issues, led him to believe that Milan was not likely to be charged
with any drug offenses.

Questions about Milan's past have arisen since before he was elected
mayor in May 1997 after serving a little more than a year as City
Council president.

One of the city's most outspoken activists, Frank Fulbrook, who ran
against Milan in the mayoral election, and another Milan opponent,
Jose E. Delgado, said neighborhood people had come up to them during
the campaign and told them that Milan had been involved in drug dealing.

Fulbrook said people had told him that they remembered Milan as having
been involved in drugs at Fifth and York. He said Milan's supporters
seemed interested only in the present.

"They weren't willing to admit that there was a dark side," Fulbrook
said. "And the question is: Was it only in his past, or was it
carrying over into the present?"

Douglas Bradley, who was an adviser to Milan during the mayoral
campaign and later was the mayor's top adviser, said that when the
question came up during the campaign, Milan denied involvement in
drugs and Bradley accepted that denial.

"I didn't want to believe it," said Bradley, who said subsequent
questions about Milan's past as well as some of the decisions Milan
made as mayor had led him to resign.

Milan's lawyer, Martir, who is representing Rivera's codefendant in
the current trial, said that he expected more testimony about Milan
and drugs but that he does not believe the mayor will be charged with
any drug offenses.

"He was never a target in this conspiracy," said Martir, who said
Milan may well be indicted soon in a federal prosecution alleging corruption.

Martir, a former federal prosecutor, said he believed that prosecutors
were trying to "wound" the mayor in the Rivera trial while they pursue
the corruption inquiry, which is examining virtually every aspect of
how city business has been conducted since Milan joined City Council
in 1996.

The FBI also is investigating a $60,000 cash loan to Milan's former
construction firm, Atlas Contracting Inc., in 1995. That money was
provided to Milan by Rivera, broken down into small amounts to avoid
triggering IRS notification, and deposited into Atlas' bank account,
according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Last month, Milan's partner in Atlas, Joseph Darakhshan, was charged
with conspiracy to violate IRS regulations. Martir has said he
expected the mayor to be similarly charged.

According to sources familiar with the investigation, another
drug-dealer-turned-government-witness, Saul Febo, has told federal
authorities that he gave thousands of dollars to Milan to help his
mayoral campaign. Febo is expected to testify during the drug trial.

Febo's attorney, Richard Sparaco, said it was his understanding that
Febo, an admitted leader in the drug organization, had told law
enforcement authorities that Milan was "generally involved in drugs,
in buying and selling."

"They were certainly friendly right around the time he was elected,"
Sparaco said of Febo and Milan. "Saul took an interest in Milan's
campaign. I know that Saul promoted Milan to local business owners."

Milan has repeatedly said that he grew up with people who became drug
dealers, but that he has never used or sold drugs or knowingly
associated with drug dealers.

"The reason it is so easy to connect me with this is I have cousins,
relatives who passed away from it, relatives, cousins who are
incarcerated," he said in an interview shortly before he was elected
mayor. "I'm the only one who hasn't been part of this."

Milan said he had become acquainted with Rivera after getting out of
the Marines in 1987.

Rivera contributed to Milan's campaign, and Milan was a frequent
visitor to Rivera's auto-parts store - a thriving business in East
Camden that has been depicted in testimony as a haven for drug dealers
and drug profits.

Milan said he had known Febo for many years.

"If you come from the neighborhood and your childhood friends become
drug dealers, that doesn't necessarily make you a drug dealer," Martir
said.

Martir said that if there was credible evidence that Milan had been
involved in drug dealing, Milan would have been charged.

He criticized the prosecution for allowing accusations about Milan to
come out in court.

"It's clearly an attempt to wound him . . . so that when the
indictment does come down - if it does - he will have gone through six
or eight months of controversy and insinuation," Martir said.

Milan, too, dismissed the testimony.

"They must be under tremendous pressure, saying what they're saying,"
Milan said on Friday of those who have testified about him. "They know
there is no recourse. There is nothing I can do to them. So why not
reap the benefits of saying what they're saying?"

Still, Martir said the pressure was building on the
mayor.

"Every time someone gets up on the witness stand and testifies about
the mayor receiving drugs or selling drugs, that cripples the mayor's
ability to run the city," Martir said.

Asked Friday if he had ever sold or purchased drugs, Milan said: "If
you ask the people who know me in the community, they will say no,
that's not Milton Milan. All these folks who are saying what they're
saying have everything to gain and nothing to lose."