TRIAL STARTS FOR EIGHT ACCUSED IN MARIJUANA-SMUGGLING RING

Federal officials say syndicate could be the most active along border

Eight South Texas residents go on trial today for allegedly participating in
a marijuana-smuggling operation run by what officials say are some of the
most active of hundreds of family syndicates that operate along the
Southwest border.

Maida Mascorro, Rosenda Arias, Jorge Garcia, Oscar Arias, Elizabeth Arias,
Adrian Cruz, Julio Pena and Maria Hilda Munoz are charged with conspiring to
conduct business with money derived from drug proceeds.

The drug conspiracy -- which has its roots in Starr, Hidalgo and Zapata
counties -- allegedly involved entire families and spanned nearly 15 years.
Most of those named in the massive indictment live in Fronton, a colonia of
a few hundred people near the border town of Roma.

In November 1996, a grand jury indicted 79 people on charges ranging from
conspiracy, money laundering, illegally structuring a financial transaction
and drug trafficking for the so-called Moreno-Riojas organization.

The alleged syndicate chieftains -- Lazaro Moreno, Pedro Moreno and Ricardo
Riojas -- were among those named in the 197-count indictment. Most of the
defendants are related by blood or marriage to the Moreno or Riojas clan, or
another alleged syndicate headed by Rudolfo Arias, said prosecutor Judy
Lombardino.

Prosecutors said the Moreno and Riojas families allowed their ranches near
Roma to be used as dropoff points for what may have been as much as hundreds
of pounds of marijuana a week.

Generally hard to transport because of its bulk, the marijuana was allegedly
brought across the border on heavy machinery and large trucks in rural areas
where the Rio Grande is narrow and shallow.

Once across, the illegal loads were allegedly warehoused by the syndicates
until they could be picked up for distribution.

Over the past two years, prosecutors have exchanged bargains for guilty
pleas with all but the eight defendants who go on trial today in U.S.
District Judge Melinda Harmon's court.

The eight are accused of conspiring to use drug money to carry on business
activities designed to hide the source of the proceeds from law enforcement
authorities.

According to the indictment, the eight conspired with the heads of the
family syndicate to perform various tasks that facilitated the drug
smuggling. They are accused of using drug money to purchase vehicles, some
of which were used to transport the marijuana.

They are also accused of making real estate purchases and buying radios and
other equipment that might have been used to facilitate the smuggling.

According to the indictment, financial transactions were structured in
numerous-but-small amounts to avoid filing federal Currency Transaction
Reports required for transactions of $10,000 or more.

Harmon will begin jury selection today. In her courtroom is a maze of
bleachers constructed last year to accommodate what court officials believed
could have been the largest federal criminal trial ever conducted -- with 79
defendants, their attorneys and a prosecutorial team.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett