FEDERAL AGENTS ROLL U.S. DRUG NETWORK IN 14 CITIES

WASHINGTON (AP) Federal agents arrested scores of people and seized drugs
and money in 14 cities today as they broke up what Assistant FBI Director
Thomas Pickard called one of the top 20 drug distribution networks in this
country.

The FBI said agents had warrants to arrest 100 people and search more than
70 sites in an operation involving 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 year-old, multi-agency Operation Southwest Express was
the drug trafficking organization of Omar Rocha Soto, who was arrested
Monday night in San Diego along with his wife, Adriana Espinoza.

Also arrested 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 today 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 course of the investigation, agents seized 4,158 pounds of
marijuana, 2,727 kilograms of cocaine and more than $1.15 million in cash.

Seized today were 14 more kilograms of cocaine, two Ferrari autos, a Land
Rover, and seven weapons, including an AK-47 automatic assault rifle,
Pickard said. He said more than 70 arrests had been made by early afternoon
and 28 more were expected.

''This investigation has resulted in a major disruption of the flow of
drugs from the Southwest border throughout the United States, and the
dismantlement of a major international drug trafficking network,'' said FBI
Director Louis Freeh.

Pickard said 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 piggy-back trains that haul trailers. From Chicago,
the drugs went 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.