ALLEGED LEADER OF DRUG GANG ARRESTED

The man federal prosecutors say runs a drug ring from which agents
last week seized 1,600 pounds of marijuana and $1 million in cash was
arrested Tuesday night at Amtrak's 30th Street Station after seven
days as a fugitive.

Alexander Kopeykin, 34, was arrested by agents from the FBI and the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration about 8:45 p.m. as he stepped off
a train that had arrived from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Kopeykin, a Center City jewelry and electronics retailer who was
preparing to launch a riverfront restaurant in Torresdale, had a brief
court appearance yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles B.
Smith. Smith ordered him held pending a bail hearing Tuesday.

Kopeykin's attorneys, James A. Lammendola and Charles P. Mirarchi 3d,
said yesterday that they had been negotiating with authorities for
days for Kopeykin's surrender and were surprised when they and
Kopeykin's relatives were confronted on the Amtrak platform by federal
agents.

Lammendola would not comment about why Kopeykin was in Florida or
whether Kopeykin knew he was wanted by authorities.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary E. Crawley said she would ask that
Kopeykin be held without bail pending trial on drug-conspiracy charges.

According to documents filed by Crawley, Kopeykin fled the region Nov.
18 after he and an alleged accomplice, Alexander Cherkas, 23, of
Northeast Philadelphia, were surprised by agents as they allegedly
removed boxes of marijuana from a rental truck and took them into a
house on O Street near Luzerne in Juniata Park.

Both men fled, prosecutors say, but Cherkas was arrested after he
crashed the rental truck into a parked police car and was stopped.

Lammendola said that he would seek bail for Kopeykin and that his
client was not a threat to the community: "As I stand here now, the
charges seem pretty tenuous."

Also yesterday, U.S. District Judge Robert S. Gawthrop 3d affirmed
Judge Smith's order of earlier this week freeing Cherkas on $300,000
bail. Gawthrop said he believed that Cherkas fled but called the act
"impetuous" and said he did not believe he would do it again.

In another hearing, Smith dismissed all charges against one of two
Arizona men who prosecutors alleged drove a tractor-trailer containing
the marijuana from Nogales, Ariz., to Philadelphia. Smith said there
was not enough evidence to show that the driver of the truck, Jacob
Salazar, 24, knew that the cargo he was hauling hidden in boxes was
marijuana.

The other Arizonan, Fernando Salcido Morales, 33, remains in custody.
Prosecutors said he gave a statement to agents after his arrest Nov.
18 that he helped unload the boxes and knew they contained marijuana.

In addition to the marijuana, agents seized $1 million in cash
concealed in the truck. Prosecutors say that was Kopeykin's payment
for the marijuana shipment and was being taken by the two Arizona men
back to the drug's supplier in the Southwest.

Checked-by: derek rea