'88 COCAINE BUST PAYS FOR NEW BOCA RATON BUILDING, TRAINING CENTER

Boca Raton - City police have new offices thanks in large part to a
28-foot boat named Lassie, loaded with 1,400 pounds of cocaine.

That's not all: Boca Raton Fire Rescue has new headquarters. And
municipal employees from across the city, and soon the region, have a
new training center at 6500 Congress Ave.

City officials recently dedicated the 117,000-square-foot building,
which still has about 50,000 square feet of unfinished space. Plans
call for city's emergency operation center and 911 center to be
housed there as well.

It all started on a boat in 1988, Police Chief Dan Alexander told a
crowd of city employees in a cavernous new auditorium.

It was Father's Day that year when Boca Raton police seized the
Lassie behind a home in the well-to-do Royal Palm Yacht and Country
Club. At the time, its cargo was worth millions on the streets. That
bust led to the fall of a Colombian drug kingpin, Julio Nasser-David,
more than 100 arrests and the seizure of nearly $200 million in Swiss
bank accounts. Guinness Book of Records once called it the largest
asset seizure ever.

The Swiss government, Miami-Dade police, U.S. Drug Enforcement
Admiistration and the U.S. Customs Service all received part of the
money. It took years of winding through the courts before Boca Raton
got its share of $13 million in 2001.

A year later, city officials used $7.1 million of that money to buy
the old Sony building, where the company produced synthesizers.

Former Police Chief Andrew Scott crafted plans to create what he
dubbed the International Center for Leadership and Development, a
training complex for law enforcement, fire-rescue and city employees
from around the world. Scott left the agency and the name changed.

But city officials still plan to use the building as a training
facility and officially named it the 6500 Building.

About $1 million from the fire-rescue budget paid for the
department's new headquarters. Fire administration moved into the
building in April.

Minutes after unveiling the building plaque, Fire Chief Tom Wood
showed off his new digs, with its three large classrooms that are
being used for training firefighters, recruits and for holding
community classes. Instructors from places such as Palm Beach
Community College have given training courses there. Wood said those
classes filled with firefighters, about 80 percent of them from Boca
Raton and 20 percent from other agencies.

On a couple of occasions those classrooms filled beyond capacity,
Wood said. So the firefighters were able to move some of them to more
classrooms in other parts of the building.

"It's a multiuse facility," Wood said. "We share the space and make
the most use of [it]."

The city spent about $6 million from its general fund to renovate the
building and upgrade it to withstand winds of up to 155 mph, city
officials said. The renovations include a large auditorium and six
classrooms for general employees.

"We do all the staff training here now," Assistant City Manager
Michael Woika said.

Over time, the city plans to offer the training for other government
workers as well, he said. So a large group can meet in the auditorium
and have sessions in the smaller spaces, he said.

Police have new offices at the complex as well and a large gym that
can be used for both defensive-tactics training and working out.

Even after the city moves its emergency operations and 911 centers
into the building over the next four years, officials said, there
still will be room to grow.

"We have a venue that can provide much more than ever before,"
Alexander said. "You don't find many facilities like this operated by
local governments.