FEDS BUST DRUG NETWORK IN 14 CITIES

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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 multi agency 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 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 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 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."

Pickard said agents used pen registers, to record telephone numbers dialed
by the gang, and court-approved wiretaps including a roving wiretap on one
individual who used 12 different phones in one month.

The FBI would not say where all of the arrests or seizures on Tuesday
occurred. But, including previous law enforcement activities, arrests or
seizures in the operation have occurred in Houston; Lufkin, Texas; Chicago;
La Salle, Ill.; Cleveland; Dayton, Ohio; Allentown, Pa.; New York; Albany,
N.Y.; Boston; Nashville; and Atlanta, the bureau said.