Pubdate: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) Copyright: 2007 Sun-Sentinel Company Contact: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159 Author: Luis F. Perez, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) '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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom