3 Nations Stage Anti-Drug Sweep
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Law-enforcement authorities from the United States, Colombia and Italy announced today that they had arrested more than 165 people on charges related to the laundering of money from worldwide sales of cocaine by the Sicilian Mafia and Colombian cocaine cartels. American and Italian officials said their investigations supported recent assertions of closer cooperation between the Sicilian mob and the Colombian cocaine industry. The Mafia, they said, acquired large amounts of Colombian cocaine for distribution throughout Europe. Robert C. Bonner, head of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, said the arrests and the seizure of the suspects’ assets would disrupt operations of the cocaine-trafficking ring based in Cali, Colombia. The Cali cartel has replaced the one based in Medellin, Colombia, as the world’s biggest cocaine merchant, and Mr. Bonner said it was responsible for two-thirds of the cocaine sold in the United States. At a news briefing in Rome, Vittorio Mele, an Italian investigator, said, “I would not hesitate to define this operation as the most important ever carried out in Italy and Europe against drug-trafficking and money-laundering.” It is impossible for an outsider to assess the likely impact of the arrests on the world’s cocaine traffic, which continues to flourish despite many crackdowns and successes announced by police officials in the past. It seems premature to say that law-enforcement agencies have broken up a large international drug ring, but they have apparently disrupted its operations. “I take my hat off to the law-enforcement authorities for the effort they’ve put into this operation,” said Thomas C. Kelly, who served as deputy chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration from 1985 to 1989. “But I would argue that it’s going to have very little impact on the future availability of cocaine. “There are so many networks importing cocaine, there is such demand for it, the money is so great and the stakes are so high that if you stop the traffickers on one street, they’ll just go over to another street to bring it in.” John C. Lawn, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration from 1985 to 1990, said the arrests “could have a long-term impact because they will disrupt methods of communication, the flow of information and money and the trafficking patterns” of vast narcotics enterprises. More : query.nytimes.com |