AUTHORITIES SEARCH HOME OF SIMPSON

MIAMI - Federal and local law enforcement agents searched former football
star O.J. Simpson's house in south Miami-Dade Tuesday, as part of a
two-year investigation into an alleged ecstasy drug-smuggling and
money-laundering ring.

Simpson, who was acquitted of the 1994 slaying of his former wife Nicole
Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles, has not been
arrested or indicted in the investigation, called Operation X, FBI
spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said. Nine people in Miami and two in Chicago
were arrested Tuesday, she said, and nine other homes in the Miami area
were being searched by the FBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration
and Miami-Dade police.

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter of Miami, said after investigators had
departed the house that "no illegal substances were found in Mr. Simpson's
home."

He also denied that Simpson was involved in money-laundering. "One plus one
does not equal two in this case," he said.

The agents converged on the house at 6 a.m., greeted in the doorway by a
bathrobe-clad Simpson, whose picture was caught by a television news
helicopter hovering overhead. Later, as investigators continued to search
the house, an apparently upset Simpson drove away in his black
sport-utility vehicle, ignoring the flock of reporters.

Orihuela said the alleged ring imported the party drug ecstasy from Holland
and distributed it in the South Beach area, and also stole equipment used
to make counterfeit chips or cards that steal satellite television
reception. She said the ring had laundered about $800,000.

Galanter said Simpson apparently became part of the investigation after his
name - not his voice - "came up on a wiretap in an unrelated drug
investigation."