COCAINE ROUTE TO U.S. BROKEN; 50 INDICTED IN CARIBBEAN PIPELINE BUSTS

They are the "modern-day Pirates of the Caribbean," law enforcement
officials said, and on Wednesday more than 50 drug traffickers from
seven countries were under indictment as a multinational task force
announced it had broken the Caribbean's biggest cocaine connection.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said two trafficking organizations
targeted in the indictments supplied 10 percent of the cocaine sold on
U.S. streets, or enough to provide a monthly dose to every adult and
high school student in the country.

John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
said the indictments and arrests would soon be felt on the street. "In
the next 12 months, there will be reductions in the availability of
cocaine in the United States -- something we haven't seen in a
decade," he said.

The cocaine originated in Colombia's north shore, passed through the
Caribbean by air and sea, and wound up in Miami and New York. Since
1999, the two trafficking operations had supplied 3 metric tons of
cocaine each month, raking in a total of $290 million.

Two indictments unsealed Wednesday were the culmination of 29 months
of investigations under what is known as the Caribbean Initiative.
Agents identified and targeted the top cocaine suppliers, then built
cases against them. The defendants were charged with conspiring to
import cocaine into the United States and money laundering, offenses
that carry possible life prison sentences.

By late Wednesday at least half the accused traffickers were in jails
in Colombia, Panama and Canada. Once they are extradited, they will be
tried in federal court in Miami.

The only U.S. arrest occurred in Broward County. Nestor Plata was
taken into custody in Pembroke Pines and will appear today before a
federal magistrate in Miami.

"This series of indictments and related arrests represents the
successful culmination of DEA's Caribbean Initiative," Ashcroft said
at a news conference in Washington, D.C. He added that the
investigations targeted Colombian trafficker Elias Cobos-Munoz and
leaders of an affiliated ring headed by Melvin Walter Maycock and
Pedro Vincent Smith.

The indictments against the Maycock and Smith ring detailed numerous
cocaine loads in cars and homes in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade
counties. They also detailed loads on boats off South Florida's coast.

At Ashcroft's side were representatives from the Drug Enforcement
Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Internal Revenue
Service, the White House drug czar, and law enforcement officials from
Panama, Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.

Miami's U.S. Attorney, Marcos Daniel Jimenez, also was there. Later,
Jimenez said in a statement that he was proud that two of his
prosecutors, Lynn Kirkpatrick and Jerold McMillen, had been chosen to
build the cases and take them into court.

By day's end, 12 people had been swept up in connection with one
indictment, while 14 were arrested in the other. The probes carried
the colorful monikers "Operation Busted Manatee" and "Operation Double
Talk." Some 55 search warrants were executed.

Law enforcement officials identified Cobos-Munoz as the reputed head
of one of the world's biggest drug trafficking and transportation
rings, based in Colombia and Jamaica. In October, he was named as a
priority target on a list of people authorities believe are most
responsible for the nation's drug supply, as were Maycock and Smith.
The two also were charged with conspiracy to import marijuana.

The indictments were "the crown jewel" of the Caribbean Initiative,
said DEA administrator Karen Tandy. The effort knocked out eight drug-
smuggling organizations and led to indictments against 41 of the
agency's "most wanted" traffickers.

"These are the modern day Pirates of the Caribbean who prey on the
vulnerable, plunder for profit, and intimidate through violence,"
Tandy said. She added that prosecutors would seek to extradite the
defendants "so that they will answer to the courts in the same land
where they profited from poisoning America's children."

The indictments also seek fines and forfeitures totaling $279 million.
Already, some $25 million has been seized.

In addition to the South Florida indictments, a third indictment was
returned earlier this year by a grand jury in Washington, D.C.

That indictment charged Darren Ferguson, a Cobos-Munoz organization
pilot, with drug trafficking.