SUSPECTED JAMAICAN DRUG TRAFFICKER CAUGHT IN BAHAMAS

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Bahamian and U.S. officers captured a suspected
Jamaican drug trafficker named in a Miami indictment, authorities said
Friday.

Pedro Smith was arrested as he attempted to leave the Bahamas on a
private plane Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Homeland Security
Department in Miami said in a statement.

Smith was caught after U.S. federal agents connected flight plans and
news reports that a plane linked to Smith had left Jamaica headed for
the Bahamas, the statement said. No further information was available.

A Homeland Security spokeswoman in Miami did not immediately return
calls. Smith was named in one of two federal indictments unsealed in
Miami on Wednesday. Operation Double Talk focused on Bahamian and
Jamaican shippers who moved cocaine through South Florida to New York
distributors.

The two indictments targeted modern-day pirates blamed for smuggling
10 percent of the U.S. cocaine supply from the northern coast of
Colombia through the Caribbean by sea and air.

Law enforcement agencies in the United States and six other nations
reported the arrests of more than 50 reputed traffickers tied to two
drug and money laundering organizations blamed for delivering about
6,000 pounds of cocaine each month and making $290 million in profits
since 1999.