COLOMBIAN GETS LIFE TERM

NEW YORK - A Colombian woman was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for
running an international trafficking ring that imported more than seven
tons of cocaine into the United States from the late 1980s until 1997.

Mery Valencia, 46, also known as La Senora, was convicted in July of
operating the drug organization with her sisters, relatives and friends.

From the mid-1980s until 1992, she directed the organization from Miami and
also controlled a network of so-called "stash houses" there and in Houston
and Los Angeles where her partners in crime received, stored and
distributed cocaine.