FIVE MORE PEOPLE, INCLUDING TWO JURORS, CHARGED IN CONNECTION WITH TAINTED
VERDICT IN 1996 DRUG-TRAFFICKING CASE

In charges unsealed in federal court this morning, two jurors were charged
with corrupting the verdict when they voted to acquit Sal Magluta and Willy
Falcon of drug-trafficking charges in 1996.

Three other people connected to those jurors were also charged and are
scheduled to appear with them before a federal magistrate this afternoon.

The two jurors, Maria del Carmen Penalver, 30, and Gloria Alba 31, are
accused of pocketing bribes to guarantee the acquittals of the drug
kingpins and of lying in open court because they believed that Falcon and
Magluta were guilty based on the evidence at trial but voted to acquit the men.

Penalver was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. Alba was charged
with obstruction of justice.

Also charged:

Alba's husband, Isael, 41, charged with obstruction of justice.

Gerald Rodriguez, an ex-boyfriend of Penalver's who she dated from 1995
to mid-1999, charged with making false statements. The charge is based on a
2001 interview with FBI agents during which Rodriguez denied any knowledge
that Penalver received any bribes.

Raul Sarraff, 48, who authorities say manipulated his friendship with
the Alba family and became the broker and bagman who delivered the bribes
for the drug smugglers. He was charged with obstruction of justice.

Four years ago, jury foreman Miguel D. Moya was convicted of accepting more
than $500,000 in bribes, and sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison.

"This totally vindicates us and says what we've been saying all along:
Willy and Sal were guilty then, they're guilty now and we had to spend a
lot of time and money to prove it," said one source familiar with the
seven-year investigation.

The full amount of bribes paid to the two was not disclosed in court
papers, but they did say that Penalver received cash payments from Moya of
at least $20,000 between March of 1996 and that summer. She shared some of
that money with Rodriguez, according to the documents.

Penalver, Sarraff and Rodriquez could not be reached for comment.

The Albas, who spoke exclusively to The Herald, are cooperating in hopes of
receiving more lenient sentences -- and salvaging a future with their two
young daughters.

While they remorsefully admit taking about $260,000 of the $1 million
promised them, the Albas believe Sarraff pocketed most of the bribes they
were supposed to receive.

"He ripped us off and we didn't know it," Gloria Alba said.

Unlike Moya, an airport ramp worker who bought boats and houses with
bribes, the Albas didn't spend extravagantly. Gloria, who worked at a towel
company, said Sarraff paid them in "dribs and drabs" -- $1,000 here, $2,000
there -- enough to let her stay home with her girls, now 6 and 8.

Magluta and Falcon, boyhood pals and Miami High School dropouts, became the
top targets to drug prosecutors and agents. The pair allegedly led one of
the world's largest smuggling operations, importing 75 tons of cocaine
between 1978 and their 1991 arrest.

But in February 1996, after a four-month trial that cost taxpayers millions
of dollars, the jury unanimously acquitted Magluta and Falcon on all 16
counts. It was the highest-profile loss of a drug-trafficking case in
American history.

Their stunning acquittals indirectly led to the resignation of then- U.S.
Attorney Kendall Coffey. After the loss, a despondent Coffey went to a
local strip club, bought a $900 bottle of champagne and allegedly bit a
dancer on the arm.

Following Coffey's departure, prosecutors and agents regrouped. They
started building a new case that focused on witnesses who were murdered,
others who were paid to lie or remain silent and dozens of defense
attorneys and private investigators who were paid with laundered drug money.

They also vigorously pursued allegations that some jurors had been bribed
to guarantee acquittals, or at least a hung jury.

Federal officials have hinted for years that Moya might not have been the
only juror who was bribed. A task force comprised of FBI, DEA and IRS
agents and veteran Miami-Dade police public corruption detectives chased
allegations that Moya befriended another juror to join him.

But the female juror -- believed to be Penalver -- was never publicly
named. Prosecutors acknowledged that they didn't have enough evidence to
charge her -- until now.

Jurors have said Moya and Penalver staunchly advocated acquitting Magluta
and Falcon. After two sequestered days of intense deliberations, the rest
of the jury succumbed.

What authorities didn't realize until earlier this summer was that a third
juror -- Alba -- was also on the take. Alba said Tuesday night that she
just sat quietly in the corner but voted "not guilty."

What made it more shocking for investigators was that Alba had cooperated
with them in testifying against Moya. But the entire time she held onto her
deeper secret -- that she, too, had pocketed dirty money from Magluta and
Falcon.

The latest jury-tampering revelations will have no impact on Magluta and
Falcon. Magluta, 48, was convicted last year for his extensive role in
corrupting the 1996 case and sentenced to 205 years in prison. Falcon, 47,
pleaded guilty this year to money laundering and was sentenced to 20 years.

With those convictions and lengthy sentences, authorities have said they
will not seek to retry the corrupted 1996 case.

Sources familiar with the latest bribery investigation said the present
case started developing in late May, shortly after Miami real estate
businessman Jose Fernandez, 47, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison.

Fernandez was convicted of helping Magluta rent several Miami Beach
apartments and Golden Beach luxury homes when the smuggler was a fugitive
in the late 1980s. Fernandez also used his private investigator's license
to visit jailed witnesses and encourage them not to testify.

After he was sentenced, sources said Fernandez started cooperating and told
authorities about a friend who got Alba to help fix the verdict. That
friend, Sarraff, used to live in the same condo building as Alba's family
and had inadvertently learned she was in the jury pool for the
Magluta-Falcon trial. Alba said she had read newspaper stories about the
notorious pair, and was very worried about being picked as a juror.

Alba said Sarraff approached her with a line straight out of The Godfather
movies: 'I'm going to make you an offer that you cannot say 'no' to."

She said he offered $10,000 to answer the jury summons and $10,000 if she
got was selected. But the big payday was a promised $1 million to vote not
guilty, Alba said.

After making the first payoff, she said, Sarraff started approaching her
during the trial with questions gauging the mood of the jury.

Alba's husband, Isael, a contractor, recalled Tuesday that $20,000 was
delivered in a plastic Bloomingdale's shopping bag. It smelled moldy, he
said, as if it had been buried in a dank spot for a long time.

With information from Fernandez, federal authorities managed to create a
sting operation that eventually implicated Sarraff.

Sarraff led agents to the Albas, making another cash delivery after the
bribery well had seemingly run dry years earlier.

Gloria Alba, who maintained friendships with several of the jurors, agreed
to flip. She wore a wire for a meeting with Penalver, the sources said.

Alba was unable to elicit sufficient evidence for an arrest, the sources
said. But Penalver eventually acknowledged her involvement in a subsequent
confrontation with an FBI special agent, Mario Tariche.

On the eve of her surrender, Alba said she had a message for anyone who
would even consider taking a bribe to fix a case:

"It's not worth it. Don't do it. All the money in the world isn't worth
hurting your family and the guilt that you have to live with. It just isn't
worth it."