YEARLONG PROBE ENDS IN NATIONWIDE RAID, HELPS CRACK TOP U.S. DRUG RING

Nearly 100 arrests are expected in bust

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-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 on Tuesday were 14 more kilograms of cocaine, two Ferrari
autos, a Land Rover and seven weapons, including an AK-47 assault
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 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 Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Justice Department, Customs Service, Internal
Revenue Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service. More than
50 state and local police agencies also took part.

The FBI said arrests, seizures or other operations 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.