U.S. Tries to Halt Bail for Lawyer Tied to Medellin Cartel

Santa Ana lawyer Josue T. (J.T.) Prada personally controlled a large, sophisticated cocaine ring, helped get other accused ring members out on bail, then flew them out of the country to evade the law, federal authorities alleged Thursday.

Allegations of Prada’s role as head of a U.S. branch of the infamous Colombia-based Medellin cocaine cartel emerged as prosecutors in a Los Angeles federal court fought to keep the 39-year-old Buena Park resident in jail pending trial.

A federal magistrate Thursday set Prada’s bail at $1 million--three times the amount set last week when Prada was arrested--but delayed his release until at least Monday. Prosecutors said they would appeal the decision to permit any bail.

Prada, who has a law office in Santa Ana and has represented defendants in major drug cases, is accused with 21 others of participating in a U.S. ring that for two years smuggled and distributed up to 1,000 kilograms per month of uncut, high-quality cocaine.

Prada and the other defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco last week. Eleven of the 22 have been arrested.

Investigators said Prada boasted to undercover agents of his ties to members of the Medellin cartel.

But in sharp contrast with the prosecutors’ picture of Prada as a kingpin for a drug ring, the suspect’s attorneys, who have denied the allegations, Thursday described their client as a devoted family man, a decorated hero from the Vietnam War and a lawyer with an unblemished professional record.

Two other county residents were named in the grand jury indictment: Lenin-Francisco Molano, 30, of Costa Mesa, and Clara Rubia Perez, 25, of Garden Grove. Molano--described by Assistant U.S. Atty. John Lyons as Prada’s lieutenant and accused of distributing cocaine and handling huge sums of money in California--has been arrested in San Francisco. Rubia Perez remained at large Thursday.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said several of those indicted are fugitives in Colombia, including a Medellin state senator and reputed Medellin cartel kingpin, Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez-Gacha.

Among the new allegations surfacing Thursday, based on court documents, testimony, and statements of federal authorities, were these:

- Criminal associates have said that Prada has stashed $12 million in drug profits in Panamanian banks.

- Prada at one time schemed to bribe federal officials to arrange for inter-prison transfers in the United States for Colombian drug defendants.

- Prada maintained exclusive personal power to approve major drug deals.

- Prada tried to bypass Federal Aviation Administration registration requirements in arranging for buying planes to be used by the drug cartel.

- Prada, according to Molano, won bail releases for several drug defendants earlier this year, then put them on planes out of the United States.

Michael D. Abzug, one of Prada’s attorneys, argued in court that his client is a naturalized citizen from Colombia who has never before been charged with a crime. Prada’s attorneys also accused government officials of trying to build their case by attempting to trick Prada into fleeing the country by using a confidential informant to leak word to him of his pending indictment.

In an unusual scene, Prada himself, who has been in jail for a week, was called to testify. He said a confidential government informant tried to persuade him to leave the country and flee justice.

“He told me the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agents were after me and that I was going to be arrested,” Prada testified before U.S. Magistrate Robert M. Stone. “He told me that I should pack up, take my kids and my wife and go to Colombia and sit.”

Molano ‘Spoke for Him’

In a telephone interview Thursday, Lyons said Prada told confidential informants and undercover agents that Molano of Costa Mesa “spoke for him” and was in charge of the ring’s cocaine business in the state.

Molano confirmed this in other conversations, Lyons said.

Molano’s apartment in the Villa Martinique complex on Pine Creek Drive in Costa Mesa was searched by federal agents, but Lyons would not discuss any evidence that might have been found.

Rubia Perez of Garden Grove worked in an office Prada maintained in San Jose and attended at least one meeting where drug transactions were discussed in Southern California, Lyons said.

In 1986, Rubia Perez was one of several people arrested and ultimately convicted in what was then the largest cocaine seizure ever in California.

Rubia Perez also uses the name “Patricia Prada,” Lyons said.

Home and Office Searched

Federal agents searched both Prada’s office on North Broadway in Santa Ana and his home on Fairview Drive in Buena Park. Seized at the Buena Park home was a briefcase containing $200,000 in cash.

Prada, his wife and three children live in a white, two-story house in the Bellhurst area of Buena Park, a hilltop neighborhood of million-dollar homes. The houses across the street overlook the Los Coyotes Country Club golf course. Family members refused to speak to a reporter Thursday night. In March, Buena Park police arrested the owner and previous occupant of the house on drug charges. Cayetano M. Sinisterra, 34, also a Colombian native, is now in jail as a result of that arrest, said his wife, Polly Cayetano. Use of the house was given to Sinisterra’s attorney, who in turn rents it to Prada, she said.

‘Husband’s Already in Jail’

“My husband’s already in jail. We don’t want to be tied to J.T. in this problem,” she said.

Police searched the immaculate, two-story house for about 5 hours Wednesday night, according to neighbors. The police presence at the house is something of a regular event: Before Sinisterra moved in, another resident of the house was arrested, also on drug charges, neighbors said.

“I can’t believe it--that’s three times now,” said Tom Chapman, a Fairview Drive resident. “It was a shock for us to see it.”

Times staff writers Jerry Hicks, Eric Lichtblau and Lonn Johnston contributed to this story.