COAST GUARD SEIZES 3 TONS OF COCAINE

ST. PETERSBURG - A Mississippi-based Coast Guard cutter arrived at Bayboro
Harbor on Saturday with four federal drug trafficking suspects and more than
6,000 pounds of cocaine.

Federal officials said the cocaine was seized during recent counter- narcotics
operations in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

``This was definitely a significant bust for us, and a direct result of post
9/11 cooperation at several levels of law enforcement,'' said Paul Rhynard, a
Coast Guard spokesman.

The suspects were captured during the Caribbean operation on Wednesday, after
their boat was initially spotted 55 miles south of Jamaica by a Navy airplane,
Rhynard said.

Rhynard said a marksman in a Coast Guard helicopter disabled the vessel by
firing shots into its engine.

He said 3,650 pounds of cocaine were confiscated, all thrown overboard by the
suspects.

The suspects, Alberto Jessi, William Britton, Eladio Hooker-Myles and Ari-
Curtis Vanzie, are being held at Pinellas County Jail.

Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa, said indictments
are expected in Tampa on Monday.

The rest of the cocaine delivered to St. Petersburg on Saturday was from a
similar operation executed 60 miles south of El Salvador on Aug. 6, Rhynard
said.

Cole said the Coast Guard's actions were part of Operation Panama Express, a
joint law enforcement effort that has seized 200 tons of cocaine and led to
more than 300 defendants arrested during the last three years.