ABSENTEE CRUZ SENTENCED TO LIFE

Drug kingpin Rivera gets 8-year term

Leonardo Rivera admitted he had moved as much as $33 million worth of
cocaine a year through his New York-based operation, which included Roanoke.

Leonardo Rivera didn't get life, but he didn't get the leniency he was
hoping for as a federal judge sentenced the former cocaine kingpin Friday
to more than eight years in prison.

Rivera's sentencing came just hours after one of his co-conspirators,
Javier Cruz, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison. Cruz likely will
never serve the sentence. He fled in May, apparently to his native
Colombia, telling his probation officer that he feared U.S. District Judge
James Turk would give him a long sentence.

Federal prosecutors and drug agents sang Rivera's praises as a cooperative
witness and informant during his sentencing hearing in Roanoke. But Turk
went for a tougher sentence than the 30 months in prison Rivera's attorney
had recommended.

"This is a hard case to decide," Turk told Rivera in court. "Your
involvement was so great, and such a huge amount of cocaine was involved."

Rivera, who had pleaded guilty to drug kingpin and conspiracy charges,
admitted he had moved as much as $33 million worth of cocaine a year
through his New York-based operation. He used Roanoke as a holding area for
the drug after it was smuggled through Mexico. Rivera said he was the Cali
cartel's main U.S. distributor when he was caught in Detroit in 1991.

He likely will serve about 6 years. Although Turk handed down a 102-month
sentence, he knocked off 22 months for time already served.

Turk also ordered Rivera to pay a $30,000 fine.

Without credit for helping government prosecutors, Rivera would have
received a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

Lance Armstrong, Rivera's attorney, declined to comment afterward.
Armstrong asked that Rivera be admitted to a federal detention center in
Miami, where Rivera has lived for the past two years. Armstrong asked that
his client be allowed to surrender himself to the Miami facility, but this
was denied after prosecutors objected. After U.S. marshals whisked Rivera
away from the courtroom, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Mott said Rivera had
been cooperative but could be a flight risk.

Rivera spoke only once in court, asking the judge to go easy on him.

"I know I am going to get some time, and that's OK," Rivera said. "I just
hope the court can be as lenient as possible, your honor."

Federal prosecutors said they did not make a specific recommendation on how
much time Rivera should serve because they had agreed to remain silent on
his punishment in return for his cooperation in other drug cases. Rivera
was a key witness in J.R. Castellanos' trial in January. The government is
expected to ask for a life sentence for Castellanos, who was Rivera's
employee.

Like Rivera, Cruz also had worked as an informant with the promise he would
get credit at his sentencing. But because Cruz skipped out, federal
prosecutors said he had broken the terms of his plea agreement, and they
decided not to give him recognition for providing "substantial assistance"
to the government.

Without that credit, Turk said he couldn't take Cruz's service to the drug
enforcers into account. Turk followed federal sentencing guidelines and
gave Cruz life in prison without parole.

Cruz's attorney, Bill Cleaveland, argued that Cruz had risked his life by
working in Colombia as an undercover operative and that he had done
everything the government had expected of him and more -- except show up
for his sentencing.

After a series of stories in The Roanoke Times revealed his role in the
undercover operation, Cleaveland said, Cruz began to lose faith in the
justice system and began to believe that federal drug agents and
prosecutors had turned their backs on him.

Cleaveland said it was almost as if Cruz had signed a contract to build a
house and hammered all the nails and completed it in good faith. But then
after the government moved in, Cleaveland said, "the only thing he didn't
do was show up for dinner."

Cruz just "made a stupid mistake" by fleeing the country, Cleaveland said.

Turk sympathized with Cleaveland and his absentee client. If Cruz had shown
up to face his punishment, Turk said, Turk would have been able to give him
credit for his informant work.

"He can't blame anyone but himself," Turk said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski