3 extradited from Colombia guilty of smuggling

 

By BRIAN DUFFY

Herald Staff Writer

 

A federal jury convicted three men Friday of conspiring to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars of cocaine through Miami to other parts of the United States.

 

The case was described by prosecutors as one of South Florida's most significant narcotics prosecutions, The three men were among the first criminal defendants returned from Colombia to the United States under an extradition treaty that has been hailed by both governments as one of the most important weapons in the war against international drug smugglers.

 

Assistant U.S Attorneys Myles Malman and Susan Tarbe, who prosecuted the case, said the convictions of Jose Jader Alvarez Moreno, Ricardo Pabon-Jatter and Said Pabon-Jatter sent a message that international smugglers would be identi­fied, prosecuted and convicted — even when they tried to take refuge abroad.

 

During four, months of trial, Malman and Tarbe presented dozens of witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, including a key wiretap in which Alvarez, the principal defendant, was referred to as "The Godfather" of –international cocaine smuggling.

 

The case developed as a result of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's “Operation Swordfish" investigation into drug-money laundering in South Florida.

 

The. U.S. Attorney's Office said Friday that the prosecution was unusual because the agents were able to trace the laundered money back to the principals in the smuggling operation. Typically, mon­ey-laundering investigations result in the arrest of couriers and others who handle the money and facilitate transactions, but seldom are those behind the smuggling enterprise identified and arrested. 

 

In this case, wiretap information disclosed, that the smuggling operation run by Alvarez and the Pabon-Jatters was responsible for smuggling $300 million to $509 million of cocaine into the United States each year. The drugs usually were brought in by small, high-powered planes.

 

Alvarez, 40, was convicted of running a continuing criminal enterprise, conspir­acy to import cocaine and conspiracy to import cocaine with the intent of distrib­uting it. Ricardo Pabon-Jatter, 25, and his brother, Said, were convicted of conspira­cy to import cocaine and conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent of distributing it, A fourth man, Pedro Bejarano, described as a minor defendant, was acquitted of all charges by the jury.

 

U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings, who presided during the trial, scheduled sentencing for. June 26.