DRUG STING HAS NETTED TWO BIG FISH, U.S. OFFICIALS SAY

WASHINGTON -- Two men considered leaders of what was once the world's
largest illegal drug operation were among 30 people arrested in
Colombia on Wednesday in a major sting, U.S. officials said.

"It is as if we have removed the CEOs of several major corporations
who had joined together in a major conspiracy," Attorney General Janet
Reno said at a news conference.

The arrests came from a joint investigation by the United States and
Colombia, dubbed Operation Millennium. Officials called the arrests
the biggest blow to Colombian trafficking since 1995 when arrests
splintered the powerful Cali cartel.

Colombia remains the world's leading supplier of cocaine although
authorities broke up the Medellin cartel in 1993 and then the Cali
cartel. Smaller, lower profile organizations took over the business
and were the targets of Operation Millennium.

Two former Medellin cartel leaders, Fabio Ochoa Vasquez and Alejandro
Bernal Madrigal, were among those arrested Wednesday. Both men are
suspected leaders of current Colombian drug trafficking cartels.

U.S. investigators will seek to extradite those arrested and prosecute
them in Florida. They will be charged with money laundering and drug
trafficking.

"Operation Millennium revealed not only the scope of the Colombian and
Mexican trafficking networks, but exposed Bernal's command, control
and intelligence nerve center ... to law enforcement scrutiny," said
the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Tom Scott.

At a news conference in Bogota, Colombia's capital, the National
Police chief, Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, said Operation Millennium
involved a year of tracking the suspects in close cooperation with the
Drug Enforcement Administration.

Investigators tapped cellular phone communications and broke into
Internet communication systems to gather the evidence to make the
indictments, said DEA administrator Donnie Marshall.

He said the arrests will disrupt the distribution of 30 tons of
cocaine per month. "Undoubtedly, others will step in," he said. But
the operation was designed to "dilute the talent pool" of drug
networks so that investigators can more easily track traffickers,
Marshall said.

Officials seized about 14 tons of cocaine, of which about 11 tons were
hidden in a Mexican fishing boat captured on Aug. 13 by the U.S. Coast
Guard.

In Texas, the investigation led to the seizure of 1,562 pounds of
cocaine in Galveston on Aug. 30.

The arrests came about one month after another productive sting,
called Operation Impunity, broke up a Mexico-based cocaine smuggling
network. Nearly 13 tons of cocaine, 4,800 pounds of marijuana, $19
million in currency and $7 million in other assets were seized in that
sting, which produced 93 arrests.

Marshall said the two operations were closely linked. "Operation
Impunity was what you might call the downstream side, traffickers who
transport and distribute the drugs into and inside the United States,"
he said.

"Operation Millennium focused on the major cocaine suppliers, like
Bernal Madrigal, who was responsible for shipping vast quantities of
cocaine into Mexico for the forward shipping to the United States," he
said.

U.S. officials said the extradition of those charged in Colombia was
key to the investigation. They said an amendment to the Colombian
Constitution in 1997, which permitted the extradition of Colombians,
will allow the extraditions to take place.

Drug traffickers have slipped through Colombia's judicial system in
the past. Ochoa was released from prison three years ago after serving
two-thirds of an eight year term for drug trafficking.

"I'm innocent. I swear it before my children, before my dead mother,"
Ochoa said Wednesday as he was led away by police. When asked if he
thought he would be extradited to the United States, he replied: "Of
course."

Ochoa's two older brothers, Jorge Luis and Juan David, also served
jail time for drug trafficking and were released in 1996.

Chronicle correspondent John Otis contributed to this story from
Bogota.