LARGE COCAINE CACHE SEIZED FROM BOXES OF FROZEN CAULIFLOWER

TOTOWA, N.J. -- A 1_1/4-ton shipment of pure cocaine with a street
value of $240 million was seized from boxes of frozen cauliflower
after law officers shadowed a suspected drug trafficker for nearly a
week, state police said yesterday.

"It is one of the largest in New Jersey history," said Col. Carl A.
Williams, state police superintendent. A similar amount -- 1,200
kilograms of pure cocaine -- was found in September 1998 hidden
inside five crates of rotting watermelons in a truck abandoned on the
New Jersey Turnpike.

Seven men accused of roles in the smuggling ring are in custody,
following arrests in New Jersey, New York and Texas, Williams said.

The seizure put a "dent" in the local cocaine supply, as the shipment
was probably going to be cut and packaged for sale in northern New
Jersey and New York City, Williams said.

The arrests involved the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
as well as troopers and prosecutor's investigators in Bergen, Hudson
and Union Counties, said Williams, who made a rare appearance in
uniform as he addressed a news conference.

"It was a fantastic team effort of all the agencies involved," he
said.

Law officers got information on Jan. 19 that Noe Gutierrez would be
receiving a large shipment of cocaine in this area and began 24-hour
surveillance of the Texas man as he traveled between New Jersey and
New York, Williams said.

On Monday, Gutierrez began looking at storage facilities and rented a
truck. Three other men took the truck and went to a produce shipping
terminal by Route 3 in Secaucus, where they and Gutierrez loaded six
pallets of frozen cauliflower into the truck, Williams said.

The three men -- Joseph Ortiz, 27, of Houston; Eugene Ortiz (no
relation), 24, of Cherry Point, N.C.; and Rigoberto Puga, 47, of
Houston -- drove away in the truck, headed to New York, and were
arrested on Route 3, state police said.

The truck was taken to the state police barracks here, where officers
searched about 300 boxes. The kilogram blocks of cocaine were bundled
in groups of four, sealed in shrink-wrapped plastic, and placed inside
garbage bags, state police said.

Gutierrez, 33, of Danevang, Texas, left the terminal before the truck,
but was arrested later that day as he sat in a plane at Newark
International Airport bound for Texas.

Gutierrez is considered one of the leaders of the ring, and also was
wanted for aggravated assault in Brownsville, Texas, Williams said.

DEA agents in Manhattan arrested two men on Tuesday who are accused of
attempting to buy the cocaine, Roman Angel Rojas, 32, of Queens, N.Y.,
and Ricoberto Justin, 30, of Maspeth, N.Y. A seventh suspect, Juan
Jose Rodriquez-Alonso, 34, a Mexican national, was arrested by the DEA
late Tuesday night in McAllen, Texas.

Authorities believe the cocaine is from Colombia, but would not
speculate on the producing cartel.

"We believe the New Yorkers were Colombians, and the transhippers were
Mexicans," said John Gartland, associated special agent in charge of
the New York DEA office.

The cauliflower was in a shipment of other frozen vegetables that was
brought from a warehouse in Hidalgo, Texas, to Secaucus by an
independent trucker who was not aware of what was in his cargo,
Williams said. He declined to identify any of the warehouses.

Eugene Ortiz is a lance corporal on active duty at the Marine Corps

Air Station at Cherry Point, where he is an electrical technician who
works on planes that carry personnel and rescue helicopters, said
Capt. Robert Crum, a station spokesman. Ortiz joined the corps in
1996. Citing privacy regulations, Crum said he could not comment on
the Marine's record.