Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jul 2006
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2006 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://www.tbo.com/news/opinion/submissionform.htm
Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Elaine Silvestrini, The Tampa Tribune
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

COLOMBIAN'S TRAFFICKING, LAUNDERING TRIAL OPENS

TAMPA - Purported to be "one of the largest cocaine traffickers in 
Colombia, if not the world," Joaquin Mario Valencia-Trujillo imported 
hundreds of tons of the drug into the United States for decades, a 
federal prosecutor told jurors Monday.

The biggest catch for the investigators of "Operation Panama 
Express," Valencia, 48, is standing trial on charges including drug 
trafficking and money laundering. The Tampa-based investigation, 
which has spanned more than a decade, is said by officials to be one 
of the most extensive drug trafficking investigations in U.S. history.

Valencia's organization was cunning and violent, employing hit teams 
to kill potential witnesses and adapting in the face of heat from law 
enforcement by constantly changing smuggling routes, Assistant U.S. 
Attorney Joseph K. Ruddy said. The prosecutor described a creative 
smuggling organization that frequently switched methods of exporting 
hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States and millions of 
dollars in currency back to Colombia. When airdrops were foiled by 
authorities, smugglers turned to the seas. When one maritime route 
was shut down, traffickers invented another.

Valencia's attorney, Matthew Farmer, told jurors in his opening 
statement that the defense team will vigorously dispute all the 
allegations made by the prosecution. Farmer said the government's 
only evidence will come from the mouths of drug traffickers who have 
cut deals with the government and want to save themselves by making 
Valencia serve the prison sentences they deserve.

Farmer also stressed to jurors what they have already been told by 
U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich - that they cannot convict 
Valencia of any crimes committed before Dec. 17, 1997. A provision in 
the Colombian Constitution prohibits extradition for crimes committed 
before then.

Valencia, a multimillionaire known for breeding rare show horses, is 
accused of being a leader in the Cali Cartel. His estate in Cali is 
known as "Casa Blanca," or the White House, Ruddy told jurors. "It 
doesn't really look like our White House," Ruddy said. "It looks more 
like our Pentagon. But evidence will show you that it is the house 
that cocaine built."

Valencia exported cocaine to Miami, Houston, New York, Los Angeles 
and Tampa, with his involvement in drug trafficking dating back 30 
years, Ruddy said. The furthest back investigators can trace 
Valencia's activities is the late 1970s, when Valencia was 20 or 21 
years old, Ruddy said.

"Even at that time, the defendant was considered a large cocaine 
trafficker," the prosecutor said, and he earned the nickname "El 
Jovan," or "the young man."

Ruddy said Manuel Garces, one of the founders of the Medellin Cartel, 
introduced Valencia and Valencia's older brother, Guillermo, to 
Salvador Magluda and Willie Falcon, two drug traffickers in Miami. 
With Valencia's help, the two men became the largest cocaine 
distributors in the United States. At one point in 1983 or 1984, 
their demand outstripped Valencia's supply, and they briefly turned 
to the Medellin Cartel, Ruddy said.

But Valencia increased his capacity and was able to supply Magluda 
and Falcon for distribution in Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and New 
York, Ruddy said.

When Magluda and Falcon were indicted in the late 1980s or early 
1990s, Valencia's head of security, known as "Tocayo," hired hit 
teams to go to Miami to kill witnesses, Ruddy said. Four out of 12 
witnesses the organization targeted were killed, the prosecutor said.

Ruddy described Valencia's frequent explorations of different ways to 
export the drug, starting with airplanes, which became untenable 
because of law enforcement attention.

Various shipping routes and vessels were tried and dropped as each 
method was disrupted by authorities, Ruddy said. In 1988 or 1989, 
Valencia joined forces with Jose Castrillon-Henao and Pedro 
Navarette, the operators of a fishing company in Buena Ventura on the 
west coast of Colombia.

They developed a route in which empty fishing vessels left Buena 
Ventura and headed south, Ruddy said. The vessels met up with smaller 
boats carrying loads of cocaine off the coast of Ecuador, then headed 
south toward the Galapagos Islands, where they knew U.S. law 
enforcement wasn't watching. Then they headed north to a point 
several hundred miles off Mexico, where they met other vessels that 
took the shipments to Mexico for export to the United States.

Using this method, Ruddy said, Valencia's organization smuggled 100 
tons of cocaine into the United States every year.

In January 1992, Valencia was unhappy that he had to pay "exorbitant" 
fees to Mexican smugglers, Ruddy said. So he bought two freighters. 
One ship, the Harbor, was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1993, 
Ruddy said, and Valencia then got rid of the other freighter.

Castrillon was arrested in 1995 and Navarette the next year. Valencia 
hired attorneys for the two men and did everything he could to free 
them, including trying to bribe officials in Panama, where Castrillon 
was being held, Ruddy said. In September 1997, Navarette escaped from 
prison in Ecuador, but he was arrested again in September 2002 in Medellin.

In the late '90s, Valencia was smuggling with freighters leaving the 
north coast of Colombia with cocaine destined for various points, 
including Tampa, Ruddy said. One freighter laden with several tons of 
cocaine was unloaded near Tampa in 1999 or 2000, Ruddy said.

But New York "was always Mario Valencia's largest market," where 
cocaine commanded the highest price and yielded the greatest profit, 
Ruddy said.

The first prosecution witness, Ramon Orozco Mejia, testified he 
smuggled about 15 loads of cocaine - from 150 to 500 kilograms - to 
New York for Valencia's organization between 1998 and 2000.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman