MIAMI DRUG-SMUGGLING SUSPECT NABBED 15 YEARS AFTER DISAPPEARANCE

The past caught up with Rafael Franco last week as he was putting the
finishing touches on a palatial new house in Pinecrest.

At first, he told Deputy U.S. Marshal John Amat that he really was
Jorge Alonzo, just as his Florida driver's license said. But when Amat
asked for fingerprints, Franco, 45, admitted his true identity.

"You got me. You got me. I'm Rafael Franco," he said.

So ended a 15-year run from the law. It began when Franco failed to
show up for a meeting with his probation officer in December 1988.

Franco was living an enviable life of luxury. Amat said the lavishly
appointed house south of Miami was "right out of Lifestyles of the
Rich and Famous. The gleaming marble floors were impeccable. "You
could eat off them," Amat said.

Franco was in the wind so long, he became one of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement's 10 most-wanted fugitives and was featured on the
television show America's Most Wanted, said Assistant U.S. Attorney
John Schlesinger.

Franco appeared in shackles in federal court in Miami on Thursday,
admitted who he was and agreed to go to Tampa to face a 1989
indictment accusing him of running a drug-smuggling ring that brought
multi-ton loads of marijuana into South Florida.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

U.S. Magistrate Ted Klein ordered him held without bail.

Schlesinger said Franco's official trade was commercial fishing in the
1980s, and he had since started a construction business. But that
couldn't explain the fancy cars he owned: a Jaguar, a Ferrari, a
Mercedes-Benz and a Lincoln Continental. Neither could it explain the
machine guns and silencers found inside his house before he
disappeared all those years ago.

The prosecutor said Franco really earned his living using shrimp boats
to bring marijuana from Colombia to the coast near Everglades City.

Shlesinger said investigators in Miami also want to talk to Franco
about a 1989 car-bombing that killed a federal witness.