98 ARRESTED IN BREAKUP OF DRUG RING

Smugglers Sold Coast-To-Coast

HOUSTON -- Federal officers arrested 98 people Tuesday in the breakup of a
coast-to-coast drug-smuggling ring.

The government's yearlong investigation in 14 cities, dubbed Operation
Southwest Express, also led to the seizure of $1.15 million in cash, 2,727
kilograms of cocaine and 4,158 pounds of marijuana.

The FBI called the ring one of the top 20 drug-distribution networks in the
country.

The arrests began Monday night in San Diego with Omar Rocha Soto, the ring's
alleged leader, and his wife, Adriana Espinoza. Federal agents also arrested
three men they say ran the organization's El Paso base, brothers Daniel,
Raul and Angel Sotello-Lopez.

The ring relied on trucks, trains and cars to circulate several tons of
cocaine and marijuana to distributors in Chicago, Cleveland, New York,
Nashville and Boston. The drugs were smuggled from Mexico, South America and
Southeast Asia, the FBI said.

Police in Houston raided two businesses Tuesday as part of the operation and
arrested five Houston-area residents. About $280,000 in cash, a Land Rover
and two Ferraris were seized.

Bassam "Sam" Khalil Farhat, 35, Steven Foufic Timani, 32, Courtney Brian
Cunningham, 22, Luis Hernando Melendez, 36, and Jose Santana, 28, were
indicted on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute in
excess of five kilograms of cocaine since May 1998.

Farhat and Timani also were charged with money laundering.

"Were they cartel leaders? No," said Drug Enforcement Administration Special
Agent Ernest Howard, "but they were heads of cells."

Federal officials suggested that Rocha-Soto in San Diego coordinated the
trafficking; members of the Sotelo-Lopez family in El Paso transported the
drugs to Chicago and Boston; and Farhat and Timani in Houston were
responsible for transportation and distribution of cocaine to New York.

"They are much more than mules," said Houston Police Department Lt. Gray
Smith, part of the federal and local High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
operation.

"These were not users. They were businesspeople. Junkies don't drive
Ferraris," Smith said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Magidson said investigators were helped by a
"rare occurrence" -- the use of a roving wiretap to track a number of
cellular phones used in the drug transactions. Typically, a wiretap is
sanctioned for a specific telephone line, not to follow a person as they use
different wireless equipment from week to week.

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