DRUG BUST DEALS BLOW NATIONALLY

FBI Says Suspected Traffickers Arrested In 14 Cities

Federal agents arrested scores of people and seized drugs and money in 14
cities Tuesday in an effort to break up what the FBI called one of the top
20 drug distribution networks in the country.

Agents had warrants to arrest 100 people and search more than 70 sites in an
operation against a group alleged to import tons of cocaine and marijuana
across the Southwest border and distribute it in the East and Midwest.

The target of the multiagency Operation Southwest Express was the drug
trafficking organization of Omar Rocha Soto, arrested with his wife, Adriana
Espinoza, early Tuesday as they left their $649,000 home in a San Diego suburb.

"He was definitely on his way to being a big big-time trafficker," said
Errol Chavez, chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego office.

Also arrested Tuesday were three brothers who agents said coordinated
transportation for the group from their El Paso, Texas, base. Daniel, Raul
and Angel Sotello-Lopez were arrested in El Paso.

They and others arrested were charged with drug trafficking, money
laundering and conspiracy. The trafficking charges alone can carry 20-year
prison terms.

During the yearlong investigation, agents seized 4,158 pounds of marijuana,
2,727 kilograms of cocaine and more than $1.15 million in cash.

Seized Tuesday were 14 more kilograms of cocaine, two Ferrari autos, a Land
Rover and seven weapons, including an AK-47 assault-type rifle, Assistant
FBI Director Thomas Pickard said. By late Tuesday afternoon, 77 arrests had
been made, and more than 20 others were expected, the FBI said.

"This investigation has resulted in a major disruption of the flow of drugs
from the Southwest border throughout the United States," said FBI Director
Louis Freeh.

Pickard said the raids disrupted "a major drug trafficking organization from
its distribution system to its retail sales." He ranked the group among "the
top 20" drug trafficking networks in the country.

The group brought drugs into San Diego and El Paso and shipped them to
friends and associates in Chicago in covert compartments of cars,
tractor-trailers and by piggyback trains that haul trailers, Pickard said.

From Chicago, the drugs were sent on to Cleveland, New York and Boston and
then to Nashville, Tenn., and Atlanta. He said the drugs originated in
Mexico, South America and Southeast Asia.

"This organization that was disrupted today embraced the American capitalist
idea and would sell any type of drug for a profit," Pickard said. "It did
not discriminate in its dealings with any other drug organizations. For
example, they sold to Dominicans, blacks, Middle Easterners and any other
organized-crime group throughout the United States."

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, the DEA, the Justice
Depart-ment, Customs Service, Internal Revenue Service and Immigration and
Naturalization Service. More than 50 state and local police agencies also
took part.

"The most important element was working together to pool our intelligence,"
said Joseph Keefe, DEA's chief of special operations. "Everybody's got a
piece of information down to the local police level. It's just a matter of
getting everybody to work together on it."

The FBI said arrests, seizures or other operations have occurred in San
Diego; El Paso; Houston; Lufkin, Texas; Chicago; La Salle, Ill.; Cleveland;
Dayton, Ohio; Allentown, Pa.; New York; Albany, N.Y.; Boston; Nashville; and
Atlanta.