2 DADE POLICEMEN ARRESTED

Officers Accused Of Being In Drug Ring

Two Miami-Dade Police officers were arrested for allegedly being members of
a drug organization that peddled thousands of kilos of cocaine.

Arrested Thursday was Luis F. Lopez, 31, a nine-year police veteran assigned
to the county's special patrol unit. He was charged with racketeering,
conspiracy to commit racketeering, and two counts of unlawful compensation.

John Lakatis III, 29, quietly quit his seven-year job with the police
department's general investigations unit after an April arrest and pleaded
guilty to unlawful compensation, police said. Computerized court records do
not show what sentence he was given.

"This was the result of a year-and-a-half-long investigation," said
Miami-Dade Police spokesman Juan DelCastillo. "Like any officer charged with
a felony, Lopez has been suspended without pay."

It was unclear, DelCastillo said, whether Lakatis was allowed to resign and
plead guilty because he cooperated with investigators. Nor did DelCastillo
say what role the two men are alleged to have played in the criminal enterprise.

Neither of the two men could be reached for comment late Thursday. There was
no one home at Lopez's home and Lakatis' address was not available.

The arrests came after an anonymous tip saying cops were involved with a
Miami-based cocaine ring. The tip proved fruitful: In November, police were
led to an expensive Pembroke Pines home, where a three-car garage had
allegedly been transformed into a cocaine processing lab.

It took hazardous materials crews an entire day to confiscate materials and
clean up 20441 NW Fourth St., a house records show was purchased by Anthony
and Xiomara Walker in 1993 for $233,000. Police said then that the couple
were absentee landlords who used a rental company to manage their property.

The lab was found on one of the most exclusive blocks in the Pasadena Lakes
section of Chapel Trail, a row of identical four-bedroom, four-bath homes on
a Pines canal. There police said they found 39 barrels of chemicals used to
process cocaine, including methyl ethyl ketone, activated carbon, sulfuric
acid and ammonium hydroxide.

The tenants, neighbors said, were rarely there.

Wire taps led to racketeering and drug charges last March against five
people: Carlos Perez, his wife Susan Perez, Albert Nunez, Raymondita Rivera
and Felix Boza. Still wanted are Darli Velazquez, 25, and Edward Jesus Diaz,
who uses dates of birth making him either 29 or 30.

Herald Staff Writer Elaine de Valle contributed to this report. e-mail:
frobles@herald.com