CUBAN EXILE ARRESTED IN DRUG CASE

Man is also a suspect in Castro death plot

One of the seven Cuban exiles charged in Puerto Rico with plotting to
kill Fidel Castro has been arrested in Miami in a major
cocaine-smuggling case, Drug Enforcement Administration officials said
Monday.

The two cases are not linked, although DEA wiretaps that led to the
drug charges against Juan Bautista Marquez also intercepted his talks
with Castro-plot defendants, other officials said.

Marquez, 61, and six other exiles were charged with plotting to kill
the Cuban president after the U.S. Coast Guard in Puerto Rico found
two sniper rifles hidden in a Miami-registered yacht in October 1997.

He was arrested again last week on a seven-count indictment accusing
him of importing 365 kilos of cocaine, conspiracy to import up to
2,000 kilos and money laundering, said DEA spokeswoman Pam Brown.

Also arrested by the DEA-led Southeast Florida Regional Task Force,
based in Fort Lauderdale, were: Marquez's son, Juan Alberto, 26;
Robert A. Alfaro, 27; Sergio R. Sigler; and Arturo L. Abascal, all
from Miami-Dade County. Six others are to be indicted in the same case
later this week.

DEA officials said the 365-kilo shipment was intercepted on the high
seas in December. Undercover agents arrested Marquez and the others
last week as they delivered what the suspects believed were parts of
the load.

Marquez owns a boat rental business in the Mexican resort of Cancun
and a small farm in Panama, according to court records in the Puerto
Rico case.

DEA officials confirmed that wiretaps were used in the drug case
beginning in June 1997 -- four months before Marquez's arrest in
Puerto Rico -- but declined further comment, saying the tapes were
sealed under court order.

But a knowledgeable law enforcement official not with the DEA said the
wiretaps had captured Marquez talking to another exile about the yacht
Esperanza both before and after his arrest in Puerto Rico.

Those portions of the tape relating to the boat trip have been turned
over to the FBI, which has jurisdiction over anti-terrorism cases, the
official said. FBI officials in Puerto Rico could not be reached for
comment.

DEA officials said that after Marquez was arrested in Puerto Rico,
they notified federal prosecutors on the island that he was under
investigation in the Florida drug case.

That set off a brief investigation to determine whether the alleged
Castro plot was in fact a cover for a drug-smuggling operation, but
that proved wrong, law enforcement sources said.

DEA officials said the case dates back to a money laundering
investigation of a Broward County person begun in spring 1997, which
quickly led them to focus on Marquez.

Wiretaps put in place that June expanded the circle of suspects, said
DEA officials, and later showed the group was coordinating and
transporting loads of cocaine being smuggled into South Florida.

The decision by the Coast Guard to search the Esperanza as it sailed
near Puerto Rico in October 1997 was "purely coincidental" and not
related to the DEA's watch on Marquez, officials said.

Arrested with Marquez aboard the Esperanza were Angel Alfonso Aleman,
57, of Union City, N.J.; Francisco Secundino Cordova, 50, of Marathon;
and Angel Hernandez Rojo, 64, of Miami.

A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico later expanded the charges to
include the attempted murder of Castro and three new defendants: Jose
Antonio Rodriguez, 61, a Miami lumber dealer; Jose Antonio Llama, who
owned the yacht Esperanza and is a director of the Cuban American
National Foundation; and Alfredo Otero, 62, another Miami lumber dealer.

Court records in Puerto Rico show that Marquez, who was free on bail,
received permission to visit his business in Cancun in December. A
woman who identified herself as the maid in his house there said he
had returned to Miami about Dec. 30.

Marquez's arrest Jan. 14 came just two days after the seven Puerto
Rico defendants won a motion to move their trial to Miami, where
attorneys believe jurors may be more sympathetic to the anti-Castro
cause.

Prosecutors last week filed an appeal against that ruling by Judge
Hector M. Laffitte.