$11 MILLION IN SEIZED ASSETS BENEFITS STATE, U.S. AGENCIES

TALLAHASSEE -- Several Florida and federal law-enforcement agencies split
more than $11 million Friday in proceeds confiscated from imprisoned drug
dealer Claude Duboc, the second multimillion-dollar distribution in as many
years.

The largest slice -- $5.8 million -- went to the Internal Revenue Service
while the Gainesville Police Department received nearly $3.6 million. The
Florida Department of Law Enforcement was given $1.5 million, and the Eighth
Judicial Circuit Special Investigations Unit received $341,000.

Last year, $15 million taken from Duboc was distributed.

"This is the latest gift that keeps on giving," U.S. Attorney Gregory Miller
said. "Crime pays, sometimes, for law-enforcement agencies that are involved
in complex, long-term investigations."

The money distributed came from the sale of roughly $17 million in BioChem
Pharma stock forfeited by Duboc to the government. The drug smuggler
forfeited property worth more than $100 million, as well. Overall,
authorities have confiscated about $200 million in assets from Duboc,
Justice Department spokesman Alan Sprowls said Friday.

Duboc's international drug operation was importing up to 186 tons of hashish
a year during its peak, authorities said.

"Tens of millions of dollars were seized from this organization," Miller
said.

IRS agents spent more than 10,000 hours on the case since 1996 in addition
to the manpower devoted by other federal, state and local agencies since the
case was initiated in Gainesville in the early 1990s.

Gainesville Police Lt. Mark Knowles said some of their award would be used
to hire more drug-enforcement officers.

"I think our citizens can look forward to seeing more officers being out on
the road," Knowles said.

Randall Bohman, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Jacksonville office, said U.S. authorities also received
the cooperation from colleagues in at least 20 foreign countries.

"This is a prime example of what happens when you have aggressive law
enforcement, aggressive prosecution," FDLE Executive Director Guy Tunnell
said. "It equals success."

Duboc, who was convicted of conspiracy to import hashish and marijuana and
conspiracy to launder drug proceeds, is serving a life sentence at a federal
penitentiary in Atwater, Calif.

Famed criminal-defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, who represented Duboc, was
jailed and eventually disbarred in Florida after being accused of
transferring about $6 million worth of Duboc's stock to his own Swiss bank
account for personal use.