Court Told Alleged Drug Cartel Lawyer May Flee if Granted Bail

Attorney J. T. Prada may have used Panamanian banks to stash some of the millions he made through a Colombian cocaine cartel and could use foreign contacts to flee unless his $1-million bail is revoked, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson took the no-bail request under submission, saying that, before ruling, he will listen to taped conversations in which two co-defendants and an undercover drug agent discuss activities of Prada, who is charged with leading the Medellin cartel’s operations in the United States.

Prada was one of 24 people named in a federal indictment handed down Oct. 19 in connection with a cocaine ring that authorities said imported as much as a ton of cocaine into the United States each month. Prada is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and one count of conspiring to import the drug. Defendants are from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Phoenix.

Bail Raised to $1 Million

Bail for Prada originally was set at $350,000, then raised to $1 million. After Prada supporters said they could raise the money, the government asked a District Court judge in Southern California to issued a stay until further hearing on the issue.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John Lyons said that, according to the conversations of Prada’s alleged associates in cocaine trafficking, Prada received an annual salary of $2 million from the cartel and worked to lower bail for eight Colombians arrested on drug charges, then helped them escape to South America.

Co-defendant Paul Eugene Smith, a private investigator who sometimes worked for Prada, also is reported to say on a tape that Prada had stashed some of his drug earnings in Panamanian banks.

Contentions Discounted

Defense attorney Michael Abzug discounted the prosecutor’s contentions and also said that, while the $1-million bail was “staggering,” Prada’s friends and relatives are willing to post it. Abzug also criticized the government for not presenting any documentation, such as Panamanian bank records, to support their claims.