Pubdate: Wed, 06 Dec 2000
Source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Address: P.O. Box 9136, Corpus Christi, TX 78469-9136
Feedback: http://www.caller.com/commcentral/email_ed.htm
Website: http://www.caller.com/
Author: Dan Parker

STOWAWAY SMUGGLERS SENTENCED

Colombians Get 12 Years In Cocaine Bust

Two men who stowed away to smuggle cocaine in a tanker ship bound from 
Colombia to Corpus Christi were sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in prison. 
Colombians Alberto Ortega-Berrios, 24, and Arley Valencia Ortiz, 25, were 
sentenced by U.S. District Judge Hayden W. Head Jr. at the federal 
courthouse in Corpus Christi. Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz admitted they 
committed the crime, their attorneys said. Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz spent 
about eight days in the ship's rudder housing compartment, guarding 525 
pounds of cocaine, said Jose Gonzalez-Falla, defense attorney for 
Ortega-Berrios. "It's a sad situation where these people are so desperate 
to make some money that they find themselves in the rudder hold of a ship 
on a voyage across the ocean," Gonzalez-Falla said. "It's a dangerous 
undertaking. They had very little to eat, and they were pretty skinny." The 
men ate canned food during the voyage.

One of the men was told by a drug organization that he would receive about 
$5,000, and that the other would get slightly more for accompanying the 
drugs, Gonzalez-Falla said. "They have a minimal education, and the 
situation in Colombia is just devastating, poverty-wise," Gonzalez-Falla 
said. "When someone is offered this much money to take this kind of a risk, 
it seems like a fortune. People are vulnerable because they don't really 
have an opportunity to come into this much money. They want to be able to 
buy a house. ... And they don't really evaluate the consequences of getting 
caught." A large drug smuggling organization provided the men with 
wetsuits, flashlights and cell phones, said Ron Barroso, Ortiz's defense 
attorney. But the men were not comfortable, Barroso said.

"My client told me he was ready to get out of that place," Barroso said. "I 
imagine it was extremely noisy in the rudder housing, up there close, I 
guess, to where the propeller goes through. And it was wet, and it was 
during the summer, but it was still cold." The drug organization also 
provided the men with a phone number they were supposed to call when they 
arrived in Corpus Christi. Someone at that number was supposed to help them 
unload the drugs, Barroso said. But Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz never got a 
chance to make that phone call. A tip led the Drug Enforcement 
Administration, U.S. Customs Service and Coast Guard to board the Alta, a 
900-foot Lithuanian oil tanker, on July 28. The ship was about seven miles 
off Port Aransas, headed for Corpus Christi, when it was boarded. The 
cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $5 million, 
represented the largest drug seizure in the port's history, according to 
the U.S. Customs Service. The drug was packaged in several 60-pound bundles 
bound in waterproof material and netting. One of the men tried to swim away 
from the ship when he realized he was about to be caught, but he swam back 
after realizing he was far from land, said Jon Muschenheim, the assistant 
U.S. attorney who prosecuted Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz. "Apparently, they 
heard us working on the hatch," Muschenheim said. Officials said 
Ortega-Berrios and Ortiz had no connection to the ship or its owner. The 
men will not be eligible for release until serving at least 85 percent of 
their sentences.
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