DRUG LIEUTENANT BREAKS LONG SILENCE

TAMPA - For 18 years, Justo Jay has kept quiet about his involvement
in a drug ring that authorities say helped make Miami the drug capital
of the world in the 1980s.

On Monday, Jay broke his silence to testify that Joaquin Mario
Valencia- Trujillo was the ring's main Colombian cocaine supplier.

Serving a life sentence for drug trafficking, Jay, 50, said he has
applied for clemency from President Bush. He said he hopes his
testimony against Valencia will help that application.

Valencia is standing trial on charges including drug trafficking and
money laundering. Authorities say he was a leader in Colombia's Cali
Cartel. He was the main target of Tampa-based Operation Panama
Express, one of the largest international drug investigations in U.S.
history.

Until now, Jay said, he had refused to cooperate with law enforcement
out of loyalty to his friends. Jay choked back tears, saying, "It's
very hard to have a friend go over and testify against you."

Jay, who immigrated to Miami from Cuba in 1961, testified he was a
childhood friend of Salvador Magluta and began working with Magluta in
the drug business in 1978.

At first, he said, Magluta supplied him half a kilogram to 2 kilograms
of cocaine to send to a friend every month in North Carolina. In 1979,
he said, he learned Magluta's suppliers were the brothers Mario
(Joaquin Mario Valencia-Trujillo) and Guillermo Valencia.

That year, he said, he went to work for Magluta and Magluta's partner,
Willie Falcon. Authorities say Magluta and Falcon made $2 billion
smuggling cocaine into Miami in the 1980s.

Jay said that at first, large loads - 180 to 250 kilograms - of
cocaine were flown from Colombia to a private airstrip on a farm in
Clewiston. The witness said he received the shipments, distributed
them to clients and collected money. Jay said he would help unload the
plane, put the cocaine into a car and drive it to a stash house in
Miami.

Jay testified that Manuel Garces, one of the founders of the Medellin
Cartel, was the middleman between Falcon and Magluta and the Valencia
brothers. At the time, a kilogram of cocaine had a street value in
Miami of $48,000, Jay said.

In 1981, he said, the Valencia brothers could not keep up with the
drug ring's demands, so Magluta and Falcon turned to Pablo Escobar,
the notorious leader of the Medellin Cartel. Jay said he went with
Magluta and Garces to meet Escobar in Medellin, Colombia, to discuss a
shipment.

But the relationship with Escobar was brief, Jay said, and before
long, the drug ring was back in business with the Valencias. Jay said
he met Mario Valencia in a Miami hotel in 1981 and, at Magluta's
instruction, he took him shopping in the city.

Jay described Valencia as "smaller than me, in really good shape, an
everyday guy, a humble guy." He estimated Valencia was then about 22
or 23 years old.

He said the two talked about boat engines, and Valencia shopped in a
jewelry store. "I don't remember exactly what he bought, but I
remember he was looking at a watch," Jay said.

In 1983 or 1984, the method of smuggling changed, Jay said. Instead of
flying the loads directly from Colombia to Florida, the smugglers flew
the cocaine to the Bahamas and then put it on go-fast boats to get it
to Miami.

Jay said he was present several times when Magluta talked to Valencia
or Escobar using a shortwave radio and coded conversations. He didn't
understand the codes, Jay testified, but Magluta would later explain
to him what was said.

In cross-examination, defense attorney Matthew Farmer highlighted what
he said was Jay's history of lying to authorities and use of aliases.
Farmer has told jurors that the prosecution's case was built on the
testimony of criminals who wanted to help themselves by blaming
Valencia for their crimes.