CONVICTED DRUG DEALER SEEKS NEW TRIAL OVER GREEN CARD DISPUTE

A drug dealer known as "Freeway Ricky" because, authorities said, he sold
drugs at freeway ramps in Los Angeles is asking for a new trial, contending
that testimony by the government's key informant was tainted.

In 1996, Ricky Ross was convicted of trying to buy 220 pounds of cocaine
and sentenced to life in prison after he was snared in a sting in Chula
Vista. His case sparked allegations that CIA-backed rebels in Nicaragua
supplied him with cocaine, leading to a crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles.

The CIA and an inspector general for the Justice Department later
discounted the allegations in separate studies.

Ross has already won one court battle since his conviction: A federal
appeals court overturned his life sentence in 1998 and ordered the
presiding judge to resentence him.

Now, Ross wants the presiding judge to give him a new trial. He contends
that Oscar Danilo Blandon, a Nicaraguan immigrant convicted of drug
trafficking, lied on the stand when he testified that he received his green
card before his conviction. Ross also accuses Immigration and
Naturalization Service special agent Robert Tellez Jr. of lying in order to
help Blandon get the green card.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Parsky has argued that Blandon's immigration
status doesn't have any bearing on Ross' conviction.

At the time of Ross' trial, Tellez was part of a federal drug enforcement
task force in San Diego that was investigating Ross. Tellez says he was
demoted in September 1999 because of the green card dispute. He is
appealing that demotion.

Yesterday, Tellez testified that the task force members nabbed Blandon by
promising him a green card if he came to the San Diego INS office. Instead,
they arrested him. Blandon was convicted of drug trafficking, but his
sentence, which could have been life in prison, was reduced to 28 months
because of his cooperation in the Ross case.

Tellez testified that he helped Blandon get his green card after Blandon
was released from prison in San Diego. The INS generally deports immigrants
convicted of drug trafficking, but Tellez testified he believed Blandon was
eligible for the green card because he was an informant cooperating with
the task force in the Ross investigation.

Tellez said he learned only later that he should have gone through a formal
request process.

During Ross' original trial, the prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S.
Attorney L.J. O'Neale, said Tellez told him that Blandon had gotten the
green card before the conviction.

But Tellez said yesterday that he couldn't remember whether he made it
clear to O'Neale that Blandon got the green card after his conviction.

Tellez also denied that he deliberately withheld knowledge of the
conviction from other INS officials, saying INS examiner Loren Montgomery
knew Blandon had served time in prison.

But Montgomery, who retired from the INS in 1995, testified, "There was no
indication at all that he (Blandon) had any criminal record."

In a 1998 report, Inspector General Michael Bromwich concluded that Tellez
not only withheld the information but also changed immigration documents to
indicate that Blandon got his green card before his conviction.

The hearing to determine how Blandon's green card irregularities affected
Ross' trial is expected to continue next week.