CONVICTED MONEY LAUNDERER HELPED INVESTIGATION, LAWYER SAYS

Cohort of Cruz gets probation

David Thompson was given three years' probation for laundering more than
$300,000 for Colombian cocaine trafficker Javier Cruz. -- "I'm sorry for
getting involved in this.'

Used-car salesman David Thompson may have closed the deal of his life Thursday.

The president of the Rod Shop car lot in Salem was given three years'
probation for laundering more than $300,000 for Colombian cocaine
trafficker Javier Cruz, avoiding a maximum of nearly four years in prison
that he could have received for his crimes.

"I'm sorry for getting involved in this," Thompson told U.S. District Judge
James Turk during his sentencing hearing.

Turk sentenced Thompson, 44, to probation after Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe
Mott filed a motion saying Thompson had provided the government substantial
assistance. Such a motion is the only way a federal defendant can receive a
sentence less than the mandatory guidelines.

Thompson helped agents arrest Cruz in April 1991 after the Colombian
smuggler left for an extended vacation in the Florida Keys. Cruz had
arranged for new identities for his employees in the smuggling operation,
and the Drug Enforcement Administration believed he was getting ready to
disappear. Agents had his pager number but did not know where he was.
Thompson got Cruz to come to the Miami airport on a pretext, where he was
arrested.

"Without him, we wouldn't have gotten Mr. Cruz," DEA Agent Donald Lincoln
testified in an earlier hearing.

As part of his sentence, Turk also ordered Thompson to pay a fine of
$7,500, perform 50 hours of community service and pay monthly probation
costs of $217.18.

Thompson has already lost his license to run a car dealership because he is
now a convicted felon, Thompson's attorney Tony Anderson said. But Thompson
remains an employee of the dealership.

"We expected probation given the size and scope of the investigation,"
Anderson said outside the courtroom. "With the extent of his [Thompson's]
cooperation ... we felt it was reasonable to give him probation."

Thompson was not charged in the case until last summer, after The Roanoke
Times reported a deal he had struck in 1991 in which he had supplied
vehicles to local drug agents and federal agencies. In return, his business
was not seized as it could have been.

At first, Thompson was required to forfeit $250,000 cash and $250,000 worth
of vehicles. But the agreement was revised to allow him to satisfy the
whole $500,000 forfeiture with vehicles.

The 30 cars Thompson supplied to law enforcement agents and agencies
include some that are being driven by undercover Roanoke vice squad members
and DEA agents and a minivan the U.S. Marshals Service has used to
transport prisoners.

Despite the car deal he made with the DEA, federal prosecutors said they
had planned to charge Thompson all along, even though they let the statute
of limitations run out. As part of a plea agreement worked out last July,
Thompson agreed to plead guilty. There was no recommendation on Thompson's
sentence as part of the agreement.

The DEA credits Thompson with helping agents catch Cruz after the Colombian
trafficker made arrangements to disappear along with his Roanoke smuggling
crew in April 1991.

When federal agents began watching Cruz in January 1991, they found that a
significant number of vehicles on his Roanoke used-car lot had been
purchased from the Rod Shop on East Main Street in Salem. Cruz was using
the car lot as a cover for his transportation network, which used specially
modified vehicles to transport drug money and cocaine around the country.

Thompson met Cruz in December 1990 and began selling cars to him for cash.
He would launder the drug money Cruz paid him through the Rod Shop,
providing Cruz a way to move illicit profits into the local economy
undetected.

A DEA agent testified last year that Cruz paid $304,000 in cash for cars
from Thompson and that Thompson hid the origin of the money.

Cruz himself later agreed to cooperate and was sent undercover to Colombia
for several years. After earning the DEA's trust and obtaining release on
unsecured bond, Cruz fled in May to avoid prison.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)