• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence

• Security Menu                     

• Systems
• Industry
• Operations
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Space

02 February 2004

U.S. DEA Announces Arrests in Colombian/Venezuelan Cocaine Case

Drug gang accused of trafficking cocaine to Europe and Australia

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), working with law enforcement authorities in seven countries, has announced that it has "brought down" a major international drug-trafficking organization responsible for organizing multi-kilo cocaine shipments from Colombia and Venezuela to Europe and Australia.

In a January 28 statement, the DEA said that to date, 78 people have been arrested in Italy, one in Spain, and 15 in Colombia, including the head of the drug organization. That suspect, identified as Santo Scipione, is originally from Italy and has lived for the last several years in Monteria, Colombia.

Scipione is accused of coordinating cocaine shipments with Italian drug dealers. More than 2.2 metric tons of cocaine linked directly to the drug organization have been seized, the DEA said. The DEA said Italian law authorities identified Scipione as a ranking member of an Italian organized crime group based in Calabria, Italy. Additional arrests are expected as a result of the four-year-old investigation, code-named "Operation Decollo" ("Take-0ff"), the DEA said.

As well as smuggling cocaine to Australia, the DEA said, the organization shipped cocaine from South America to Italy, Spain, Holland, and Germany.

The DEA said a search of three containers that recently arrived at the port of Gioia Tauro, Italy, from South America, resulted in the seizure of 250 kilograms of cocaine that were secreted within marble. In addition, residences, businesses, property, and vehicles valued at about $23 million have been identified as belonging to the drug cartel and are in the process of being seized.

The operation "demonstrates the success law enforcement can have when we form international partnerships to attack drug-trafficking organizations whose criminal activities know no boundaries," said DEA Administator Karen Tandy. "Law enforcement authorities from four continents joined forces to bring down a major cocaine trafficking organization and cripple its financial infrastructure."

The arrests in this latest case follow on the heels of DEA's disruption of a major heroin-trafficking organization based in Cali, Colombia.

Working with other U.S., Colombian, and Argentine law enforcement agencies, the DEA said in January 2004 that it had disrupted the operations of the Orlando Ospina group that smuggled each year more than 449 kilograms (990 pounds) of high-grade heroin into Miami, Florida, for distribution to New York City, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Newark, New Jersey.

The DEA said those people arrested in Colombia during the investigation of the case (dubbed "Operation Streamline") would be extradited to face U.S. prosecution.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=February&x=20040202131145AEneerG0.5946772&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html