COURT UPHOLDS DECORATORS' SENTENCE

WASHINGTON (AP) Two interior decorators convicted of conspiring to
launder money for a Colombian drug cartel kingpin whose many
properties they filled with expensive furnishings lost a Supreme Court
appeal today.

The justices, without comment, left intact the lengthy prison
sentences Antony Blarek II and Frank Pellecchia received after a
federal trial in New York for their ties to the late Jose Santacruz,
identified by prosecutors as a leader of the Cali drug cartel.

In the appeal rejected today, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz
argued for the two decorators that they are being treated as criminals
for helping Santacruz "spend his money on non-narcotics-related
activities."

"If Blarek's and Pellecchia's activities constituted money laundering,
then money laundering has been redefined to include all market
transactions between those who lead criminal enterprises and those who
provide lawful goods and services to them," the appeal said. "If that
is so, thousands of doctors, dentists, merchants and other business
people and professionals are in serious jeopardy."

But Justice Department lawyers urged the nation's highest court to
reject the appeal. They noted that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, in upholding the convictions last year, found "considerable
evidence" to "support the inference that (they) conspired with
Santacruz to aid his enterprise's drug business through money
laundering."

Blarek was a Miami-based interior designer when in 1979 he met
Santacruz in Cali, and was hired to decorate the drug lord's palatial
new home. In 1981, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
told Blarek that Santacruz was a drug dealer but by 1985 he and
Pellecchia were spending millions of dollars for Santacruz.

The two decorators worked together, their appeal said, on projects
that included an apartment for Santacruz's wife in Bogota, several
Cali apartments used by the family and friends, and homes and
apartments for two of Santacruz's mistresses.

The two men were arrested in 1997. They were convicted of conspiring
to launder money in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced
Corrupt Organizations Act. Blarek was sentenced to five years and
eight months in prison; Pellecchia to four years.

The government confiscated the $750,000 in cash found in their safe
deposit boxes.

The case is Blarek vs. U.S., 98-1391.