U.S. ARRESTS SCORES IN DRUG RAIDS IN 16 CITIES

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal agents conducted early morning drug raids in
16 U.S. cities Tuesday, arresting scores of people and seizing cocaine,
marijuana and about $1.2 million in cash, the FBI announced.

At a news conference at Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters, Thomas
Pickard, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division,
said agents seized the money, 2,727 kilograms (6,011 pounds) of cocaine and
4,158 pounds (1,886 kilos) of marijuana. Officials did not provide the
street value of the drugs seized.

Pickard said the raids called Operation Southwest Express "resulted in the
disruption of a major drug trafficking organization from its distribution
system to its retail sales."

Officials said 77 people were arrested within the last two days in 13 cities
in the one-year investigation, which involved the FBI, U.S. Customs Service,
the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and Immigration
and Naturalization Service. Officials said they were expecting to arrest a
total of about 100 people in the on-going investigation.

They said agents arrested Omar Rocha Soto, the head of the San Diego-based
organization, and three brothers of the Sotello-Lopez family in El Paso,
Texas. All four hold U.S and Mexican passports.

The raids also were conducted in New York City; Boston; Cleveland; Chicago;
Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Albany, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Nashville,
Tennessee; Allentown, Pennsylvania; LaSalle, Illinois; Dayton, Ohio; and
Santa Ana, Calif.

Joseph Keefe, special agent at the Drug Enforcement Agency, said in an
interview with CNN most of the drugs originated in Colombia and were moved
through Mexico. Once in the United States, the drugs were moved mainly by
train and trucks to different cities.

Pickard also said the FBI had spoken with governments in Latin America and
Asia soon after the raids were carried out. He did not name the countries.