Jury told to try again in big Colombia drug case

MIAMI (Reuters) Jurors attempting to reach verdicts in one of the biggest
U.S. cases against Colombia's Cali drug cartel were ordered to try again
Tuesday to bring an end to the complicated case.

Prosecutors say two of the six defendants on the case are lawyers who
crossed the line from representing their cartel clients to participating in
their drug enterprise.

The 12member jury had said Monday that they had reached unanimous verdicts
on some of the drug trafficking charges against some of the six defendants
in the fivemonth trial. But they said they had not reached agreement on
others.

Presiding judge Edward Davis, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in
Miami, sealed the verdicts the jury had reached and sent them back to the
courtroom.

On Tuesday, after several more hours of discussion, the jury sent out a
note saying it was unable to resolve the unsettled charges, raising the
possibility that the fivemonth trial would end in a hung jury. But Davis
sent the jury back to deliberate further.

"This is an important case. If you don't reach a verdict, the case will be
left open and may have to be tried again," said Davis, filling in for trial
Judge William Hoeveler, who was on vacation.

The jury deliberated again for several more hours before leaving for the
day without a verdict. They were to return on Wednesday.

The trial began in May and came after a fouryear investigation known as
Operation Cornerstone, which federal officials said uncovered shipments of
hundreds of thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States hidden in
everything from fence posts to coffee and frozen broccoli.

The best known defendant is Michael Abbell, an attorney whose Washington
law firm specialized in criminal defense of foreign clients, including
cartel leaders Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela and his brother Gilberto.

Abbell was chief of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of International
Affairs during the Reagan administration. Another attorney on trial,
William Moran, was a former federal prosecutor who also worked for the
cartel leaders.

Federal prosecutors charge the other four defendants Luis Alfredo
Grajales, Eddie Martinez, Ramon Martinez and Jose Luis PereiraSalas
helped warehouse and ship drugs. They said Moran and Abbell crossed the
line from representing drug cartel clients to promoting their illegal
business.

All the defendants have entered not guilty pleas.