AGENTS LISTEN TO PHONE CALLS, MAKE HEROIN ARRESTS

For four months, drug agents listened while the business associates talked
freely on their cellular telephones about "children," "wheels" and "pesos."
And when they tired of those code words, investigators say, they talked
directly about the group's real business -- manteca, Spanish slang for
heroin. Agents recorded more than 3,000 telephone calls concerning up to 26
pounds of Colombian heroin sold in Central and South Florida for more than
$1 million, Legislature authorities said this week.

On Tuesday, agents rounded up five men. Six other people were arrested on
related charges last week. Authorities confiscated nearly 3 pounds of
heroin. In addition, Colombian authorities have arrested and charged 11
people in that country. The local-federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area task force and deputy sheriffs from Orange and Osceola counties
arrested Edward Collado Jr., 42, and Alberto Santiago, 28, both of Orlando;
and Joseph Henry Feliciano, 30, Pedro A. Millet, 27, and Pedro Luis Vazquez-
Cardona, 23, all of Kissimmee. Last week, agents arrested Rafael Ramirez,
53; Jose F. Irizarry, 25; Irizarry's girlfriend Sarahi Figueroa, 26; and
Christian Malave, 28; all of Orlando; and Jose Ernesto Rivera-Borges, 26,
and Ramon Luis Almeda-Rivera, 27, both of Caguas, Puerto Rico.

All of the men are being held without bail pending hearings. Figueroa was
released on a $100,000 security bond, in part so she could care for her
young child.

During a bail hearing last week in federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney
Bruce Hinshelwood identified Irizarry and Ramirez as local suppliers for the
ring. He said the group smuggled at least 10 kilos of heroin -- 22 pounds --
"and probably much more."

On Sept. 10, agents for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration began
wiretapping phone calls of Ramirez's. They later obtained court orders to
intercept cellular phone calls of several associates, ultimately monitoring
thousands of calls in Spanish. Some 3,000 of those conversations involved
drugs, often in code, Orange County sheriff's drug agent Adam Black
testified last week.

In an affidavit filed in the case, DEA agent Ron Johnson detailed how agents
compared notes with Colombian National Police and obtained a court order to
acquire a clone pager, which let authorities receive pages simultaneously as
Ramirez received them.

Black also said that agents intercepted a phone call that documented how
Irizarry shipped nine handguns illegally to Almeda in Puerto Rico.

Irizarry's lawyer, Dan Perry, said Irizarry has been free on bail on a state
heroin charge.

Except for Figueroa, those arrested last week either waived bail or were
denied bail. U.S. Magistrate James Glazebrook ordered all of them to give
voice samples to agents that can be recorded and then compared with the
wiretapped conversations.

At least 123 people have died from heroin-related deaths in Central Florida
since 1994. Agents say much of it was Colombian heroin smuggled through
Puerto Rico.

According to Black, Ramirez told agents after his arrest that they would
find $20,000 and some cutting agents used to dilute cocaine in his home.
Black said agents found about one-third of an ounce of heroin and drug
ledgers.

Agents seized about a half-pound of heroin from a room safe at an
International Drive hotel occupied by Malave. Black said agents intercepted
a phone call from Irizarry telling his girlfriend to give the drugs to
Malave. The drugs were sewn into a pair of men's underwear, Black said.

Checked-by: Don Beck