COCAINE SMUGGLERS USED CRUISE SHIPS, OFFICIALS SAY

Federal prosecutors charged 20 people with smuggling hundreds of pounds of
cocaine into the United States aboard cruise ships, the U.S. Attorney's Office
announced Friday.

A Miami grand jury issued an indictment Thursday against the 20 defendants, who
included cruise line employees, passengers and organizers of the operation.
Each person was charged with conspiring to import cocaine, conspiring to
possess cocaine with intent to distribute and other counts.

The defendants could face life prison terms if convicted.

Prosecutors said a conspiracy occurred from September 2000 to April, and law
enforcement officials busted at least 21 smuggling operations. During three
busts, Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 83 pounds of cocaine at
the Port of Miami, 68 pounds of cocaine in Key West and 132 pounds of cocaine
and significant amounts of heroin and crack in the Virgin Islands.

Nine people indicted Thursday were charged in those busts, the U.S. Attorney's
office said. The smugglers used at least five cruise lines to ship the drugs;
officials did not identify the companies. The cruises traveled to locations in
the Caribbean.

In January, three men were charged with smuggling cocaine into Port Everglades,
Miami and Key West from Jamaica aboard cruise ships. That case was part of a
yearlong investigation in which seven cruise line workers were accused of
strapping packages of cocaine to their arms, legs and torsos to smuggle them
into the United States.