Drug Suspect May Have Skipped, Officials Say

Josue T. Prada, a former Orange County lawyer who defended accused cocaine smugglers until he was indicted in San Francisco on drug-conspiracy charges, may have jumped bail and fled, officials said Monday.

Prada, 40, the accused kingpin of the California arm of Colombia’s powerful Medellin cocaine cartel, has failed to report several times to U.S. District Court in San Francisco as required by the conditions of his $1-million bail, said Heather Campbell, assistant special agent in charge of the San Francisco office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Campbell said the DEA considers Prada a fugitive.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John Lyons told United Press International that he could not confirm that the Colombian-born Prada has skipped bail but said he has received “indications” to that effect. Lyons said he has not yet asked a judge to issue an arrest warrant for Prada.

When federal court officials notified the DEA that Prada had failed several times to contact them as he is required to do, the DEA notified U.S. marshals to look for him, Campbell said.

Reached at home in San Jose, Prada’s wife, Linda, said she expected Prada home later in the evening, but when pressed for details, she said, “Call back later,” and abruptly hung up. Successive calls were picked up by an electronic answering machine.

Prada’s attorney, Michael Abzug of Los Angeles, could not be reached for comment.

Attorney Sylvan B. Aronson, who leased Santa Ana office space to Prada when Prada was defending accused drug dealers, said he last saw Prada six months ago, shopping at South Coast Plaza and in good spirits. Aronson said he knew nothing of Prada’s alleged disappearance.

If Prada has indeed jumped bail, 10 of his family members--including his mother--stand to lose more than $1 million worth of property they posted in November, 1988, to assure his appearance in court. His next scheduled court appearance is May 14.

When Prada and more than 20 others were indicted in 1988, Lyons argued that Prada should be held without bail, contending that he had stashed millions in Panamanian bank accounts and could use the money to flee the country if he were freed. But a federal magistrate set bail at $1 million.

Lyons argued that the money was part of a “slush fund” provided by the Colombian cartel to allow Prada to gain the release of Colombians held in the United States on drug charges. The cartel also kept Prada on a $2-million-a-year salary, prosecutors contended.

Trial is set for May 22. Among the charges against Prada are conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States from Colombia, money-laundering, cocaine importation and cocaine distribution.

Before coming to Orange County, Prada practiced law in San Jose, where he was best known for representing Carlos Suarez Mason, a former Argentine general, in 1988. Prada tried unsuccessfully to stop Suarez Mason’s extradition to Buenos Aires, where he faced charges of complicity in the deaths or disappearances of hundreds of leftists during Argentina’s “Dirty War” in the 1970s.