DRUG INFORMANT SKIPS COUNTRY FOR COLOMBIA, OFFICIAL SAYS

Javier Cruz said he "could not do 10 years in prison"

The former Roanoke County restaurant owner has pleaded guilty to money
laundering, drug conspiracy, possessing firearms as a fugitive and being a
drug kingpin

Javier Cruz said he couldn't do the time in a U.S. prison

After six years of freedom thanks to the federal government, cocaine
trafficker Javier Cruz apparently got used to it. Two months before his
scheduled sentencing date, he seems to have fled the country.

The informant, who most recently had been living in Miami, called his
Florida probation officer on Friday and said he was in his native Colombia,
according to a court order filed in federal court Monday.

Cruz told the probation officer he ran off because he "could not do 10
years in prison." The probation officer said he confirmed that Cruz had
fled to Colombia and notified Roanoke officials immediately.

U.S. District Judge James Turk issued an arrest warrant for Cruz on Monday.
But if he is in Colombia, that country has no extradition treaty with the
United States.

The charges Cruz pleaded guilty to -- money laundering, drug conspiracy,
possessing 10 firearms as a fugitive and being a drug kingpin -- would
carry a mandatory life sentence if he hadn't agreed to become a spy for the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Cruz's smuggling group transported
more than two tons of cocaine through Roanoke in a six-month period in
1991-92.

U.S Attorney Bob Crouch said federal officials are surprised that Cruz
fled, even though he was facing prison time. Crouch said the DEA had always
found him to be reliable and to appear when required.

"We would have preferred that he follow the requirements of his bond,"
Crouch said Monday. "We're not happy about it. We encourage every
law-enforcement agency to find him and bring him back before the court."

It's not clear why Cruz thought he was going to get a 10-year sentence.
Prosecutors planned not to ask for a particular sentence but to leave it up
to Turk. Turk indicated publicly in court Friday that he planned to give
Cruz prison time. Some had speculated that the smuggler would go free
because the DEA has argued that he was a valuable informant.

As recently as Friday, DEA Special Agent Don Lincoln -- Cruz's handler in
the agency -- played down the informant's criminal history, saying reports
in The Roanoke Times about the case were "fictional."

Cruz's sentencing was postponed last week until July from its original date
of June 1. It's not clear how long Cruz has been out of the country.

Crouch would not comment on whether he thought it was a mistake to release
Cruz, a decision that was made before Crouch took office in 1993.

"That kind of second-guessing serves no purpose," he said.

Crouch would not comment on whether Cruz's Colombian wife, child and
stepchildren were missing as well. He said he believed that Cruz's U.S.
passport had been confiscated earlier, as is normal for defendants released
on bond.

But Cruz is a master of deception.

He successfully lived under aliases for nearly four years while he was a
fugitive on a North Carolina murder charge in 1987. At one point, he posed
as a foreign exchange student and lived across the street from the
Philadelphia FBI office. At various times, he has dyed his graying hair
bleach-blond and jet black. The birth date he uses most frequently
indicates that he is 40, although like Social Security numbers, he has
several.

When he was arrested by Roanoke drug agents in 1991, Cruz was getting ready
to disappear again and had arranged for all his drug workers to get fake
identifications in Florida.

If, as the government claims, Cruz provided valuable intelligence on the
Cali cartel while he worked undercover there from 1992 to 1995, the South
American country would seem to be a dangerous place for him to hide out.

Crouch would not comment on whether authorities believe Cruz is really in
Colombia.

Cruz most recently had been operating a locksmith shop and had incorporated
a security business in Florida in January. Cruz's attorney, Bill
Cleaveland, said Cruz would not allow him to talk to The Roanoke Times
about the case. Cleaveland did not return a call seeking comment Monday.
Neither did a DEA spokesman in Washington, D.C.

An employee at his Miami locksmith shop on Monday said Cruz was not in
Colombia, but in Virginia. When pressed, the worker said he couldn't speak
English.

Until now, The Roanoke Times has not disclosed Cruz's location because the
DEA has claimed he was in danger.

Normally, defendants facing the drug kingpin charges to which Cruz has
admitted don't qualify for bond. But because he agreed to cooperate with
the DEA, prosecutors asked a judge to release him in 1992 and didn't ask
for any collateral for his bond. Cruz had been locked up for 16 months
after his arrest, although he was taken out of jail frequently to go on
trips around the country as part of a money-laundering investigation. Cruz
and his cocaine smuggling boss, Leonardo Rivera, both worked undercover in
the investigation while serving time in the Roanoke County-Salem Jail.
Operation El Cid resulted in 50 people indicted; 11 of those have been
arrested; 10 have been convicted.

Cruz was released on $100,000 unsecured bond. That means he did not have to
put up any collateral but that if he violated his bond he owes the
government $100,000. Crouch said the government will go after any assets he
has in the United States.

Florida state records indicate that Cruz and his wife own a $65,000 BMW and
a $50,000 Lexus, as well as a 26-foot pleasure boat and two Seadoo personal
watercrafts. The locksmith business they own has three late-model Ford vans
and a pickup truck, all in Cruz's name.

When his undercover work was done, Cruz returned from Colombia in 1995 a
wealthy man. The DEA has said that although the money was drug money, it
was not from any criminal activity on his part. While undercover, Cruz
married the widow of a drug trafficker and the money he flashed around in
Roanoke was hers, according to the government and his attorney.

Cruz and his new wife opened a Colombian restaurant in Roanoke County and
settled down in a $288,000 house in the county. The DEA moved them to
Florida in November 1996 after The Roanoke Times wrote about the case. The
restaurant folded a few months later.

Rivera, Cruz's fellow informant, also was moved out of Roanoke County in
1996. He remains free on bond, although his was set at $300,000 and was
secured by his mother's home and other property.

Crouch said prosecutors have no plans to revoke Rivera's bond based on
Cruz's escape.

In a 1996 interview with The Roanoke Times, Cruz said he was a changed man
and not a flight risk. "I believe in U.S. government," he said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski