MAN CONVICTED OF PLAN TO IMPORT COCAINE IN RUSSIAN SUB

A Miami businessman who federal prosecutors said hoped to use a
Soviet-era Foxtrot submarine to smuggle drugs into the U.S. and Canada
was convicted Monday in Fort Lauderdale of conspiracy to import and
distribute cocaine.

The eight-week trial before U.S. District Court Judge Wilkie Ferguson
featured federal drug agents, Navy intelligence experts, and evidence
gained from wiretaps and undercover meetings.

Sentencing for Juan Almeida, 39, has been set for Aug. 6. He faces a
maximum statutory penalty of 10 years to life imprisonment.

The case against Almeida stems from an earlier case against Ludwig
"Tarzan" Fainberg, the alleged Russian mobster who owned Porky's strip
club in Hialeah. Fainberg pleaded guilty in February and agreed to
testify against Almeida. A third defendant, Nelson Yester, 37, is a
fugitive.

Defense attorney Roy Black portrayed Almeida as a brilliant young
entrepreneur who sold exotic cars and formerly co-owned the Fort
Apache Marina in Aventura. Black argued the government had no evidence
his client was involved in any cocaine deals, and attempted to cast
doubt about the truthfulness of government witnesses who were drug
dealers.

Black acknowledged that Almeida was interested in purchasing surplus
subs. But he intended to use the vessels for tourist jaunts, including
around the Galapagos Islands, a popular tourism wildlife
destination.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Fernandez said, however, "This was not a
discussion of tourist subs to the Galapagos . . . This was a definite
step, an attempt to purchase a working Russian sub for the
Colombians."

A Navy intelligence expert testified at the trial that a
diesel-powered Foxtrot could transport about 40 tons of cocaine.

Fernandez told the court Almeida had excellent contacts in Russia and
in other former Eastern bloc countries because he was helping in the
export of Russian-made items including motorcycles. Almeida used
Fainberg, she said, as a contact and translator with the Russians.

The government maintained that the drug conspiracy spanned almost 10
years in the 1980s. Agents connected Almeida with at least three
separate 500 kilogram cocaine transactions in the 1980s.

Almeida also had been involved in attempts to smuggle cocaine inside
containers filled with Ecuadorean shrimp, prosecutors said.

He had been trying put together a deal on a submarine in 1995, the
government said, so that he could sell it to Colombian cocaine lords
for $5.5 million.