DRUG-SMUGGLING TRIAL TO BEGIN FOR 6 ARRESTED ON SHIP

Six men go on trial in federal court Tuesday for their alleged roles
in a maritime smuggling operation that ferried at least 10 tons of
cocaine from Colombia to the United States and Europe in less than a
year.

Capt. Sergiy Kurdyukov; crew members Oleg Khmyznikov, Sergiy Kruglyak
and Sergiy Lyubikovsky; and alleged co-conspirators Nikolaos
Papadimitriou and Edilson Bustos-Useche are charged with conspiracy
and trafficking a 4-ton load of cocaine seized off the
Panamanian-flagged freighter China Breeze in May.

The 510-foot ship was stopped May 27 by the British Navy's HMS
Marlborough south of Puerto Rico after naval personnel received a
bulletin from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said Ernest
Howard, who heads the DEA's Houston-based operations.

Members of a special U.S. Coast Guard drug interdiction team, who were
aboard the British ship, boarded the China Breeze and found the 4 tons
of cocaine. The 40 to 50 bundles were stashed inside inoperable sewage
tanks. The ship also carried some legitimate cargo -- 16,000 metric
tons of raw sugar.

The U.S. Customs Service seized the China Breeze when it docked at the
Port of Galveston on June 6. Howard said the cocaine has an estimated
value of $347 million.

A September indictment returned in Houston alleges that Kurdyukov,
Khmyznikov, Kruglyak and Lyubikovsky went aboard the China Breeze in
Panama in June or July 1998. The indictment says that the vessel was
then put into use in the smuggling operation, picking up 3 tons of
cocaine off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia, and delivering it to a
point midway between Miami and Key West, Fla.

The ship made regular drug runs from the Caribbean Sea to Europe, the
indictment states. A month after delivering its first load of illegal
cargo, the ship picked up another 3 tons of cocaine, the indictment
says. Half the load was left on a fishing boat off the coast of Italy
and the other half was unloaded off the coast of Greece, the
indictment states. The load seized in Houston was taken aboard on May
20 during a rendezvous with three speedboats.

The China Breeze is suspected of being part of a Greek smuggling
operation that has resulted in the seizure of three ships this year,
said prosecutor Eric Reed. The trial of the six men arrested aboard
the China Breeze is expected to last about two weeks. U.S. District
Judge Lynn Hughes will preside.

Howard said the DEA has learned that Greek traffickers have used the
seas to smuggle more than 50 tons of cocaine into Europe and the
United States over the past two years.

The ships are typically loaded with the illegal cargo via speedboats
while at sea, officials said. The cocaine is taken ashore at its final
destination in the same manner.

DEA officials in Athens, Greece, together with their Greek
counterparts, have arrested eight accused co-conspirators in Greece
and have seized more than $4 million, Howard said.

The China Breeze is the second large vessel to be seized on the high
seas and brought to dock in Texas this year. In January, law
enforcement officials seized 9,500 pounds of cocaine from the
Greek-owned M/V Cannes after it was stopped off Jamaica.

The contraband was discovered under 26 metric tons of iron ore. The
ship was brought to Houston, where officials arrested three crew
members. The ship was forfeited and sold for scrap metal, officials
said.

The M/V Castor, a 250-foot freighter, was seized in June off the coast
of Venezuela. Coast Guard officials seized more than 10,000 pounds of
cocaine from that freighter. Authorities in Miami have indicted five
Colombians accused of masterminding the operation. Ten crew members
also were charged in connection with the case.

Lt. J.G. Brian Hollis, a Coast Guard officer in Galveston, said drug
interdiction is a top priority for the Coast Guard. "In an average
day, the Coast Guard seizes 209 pounds of marijuana and 170 pounds of
cocaine -- worth $9.2 million," he said.