Drug War Is Putting Pressure on Trial, Defense Says

The Bush Administration’s war on drugs is pressuring prosecutors to gain convictions at any cost against six men arrested in connection with the record cocaine seizure at a Sylmar warehouse, defense attorneys charged in final arguments as the case went to the jury Wednesday.

“There is a drug war going on in this country,” attorney Marlene Gerdts told jurors in federal court in Los Angeles. “There is pressure put on prosecutors . . . to get a conviction. . . . There are a lot of careers at stake here.”

Government investigators view the trial as a landmark prosecution in the international war on drug trafficking, not only because of the amount of cocaine seized--21.4 tons--but because the government sees the case as a rare opportunity to penetrate the transportation apparatus of the Colombian drug cartels.

The United States has charged defendants with operating a family-run cocaine trafficking organization, which stockpiled tons of cocaine at a warehouse in the San Fernando Valley community of Sylmar. The cache was discovered during a raid 13 months ago by federal and local agents.

Five of the six defendants are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute narcotics. They are: Carlos Tapia Ponce, 69, a former Mexican customs official; his son, Hector Tapia Anchondo, 38; two of Carlos Tapia’s sons-in-law, James Romero McTague, 42, of El Paso, and Jose Ignacio Monroy, 37; and Fernando Castillon, 32. A sixth defendant, Miguel Chavez, 34, is charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

The defendants, who have been denied bail and incarcerated in the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, have declared their innocence. All face 10 years to life in prison if convicted.

Three of the defendants--Carlos Tapia, McTague and Monroy--told investigators shortly after their arrests that they were participating in cocaine trafficking, according to Drug Enforcement Administration reports filed with the court. Their attorneys, however, argued the DEA and local police used coercive tactics to gain the admissions.

Along with the cocaine, several ledgers and notebooks were seized in Los Angeles and El Paso, where Hector Tapia owned a house which prosecutors referred to as “the hub of the organization.”

Government evidence--which defense attorneys challenged as inconclusive--alleged that Carlos Tapia’s handwriting was found on notes attached to cocaine-loaded pallets and on ledgers found in the Sylmar warehouse. The government also alleged that his son’s handwriting was found in a cocaine ledger recovered from McTague’s briefcase and that his fingerprints and palm prints were found on ledgers recovered from his El Paso home.

In her closing argument, Special Assistant U.S. Atty. Susan Bryant-Deason referred to Carlos Tapia as the cocaine organization’s “overseer (and) patriarch.”

“Who would suspect that a 69-year-old man (was) the head of the largest (cocaine) transportation network that would ever be discovered?” Bryant-Deason asked jurors.

But Tapia’s lawyer, Joseph Abraham, said his client had no knowledge of what was in the Sylmar warehouse, even though he signed the lease and paid the rent. “The only reason he’s here is because the warehouse was in his name,” he told the jury.

As for Tapia’s son, Bryant-Deason said he “ran the entire operation out of his (El Paso) house. . . . He has a tally sheet that matches Los Angeles kilo for kilo.”

However, the son’s lawyer, David Z. Chesnoff, said, “There’s no evidence that (Hector Tapia) has been anywhere but on a ranch in Mexico” where he runs a cattle operation.

Prosecutors said far more than the much-publicized 21 tons had been shipped to Los Angeles, hidden aboard big-rig trucks traveling the nation’s interstate highway system. In one three-month period preceding the seizure, investigators found that the warehouse had been a conduit for 77 tons of cocaine.

In the final analysis, said Bryant-Deason, the government had “a paper chain” of evidence that proved the six defendants conspired to transport dozens of tons of cocaine to Los Angeles.

“They’re just cocaine cowboys, that’s all they are,” said Bryant-Deason. “They’re greedy men. They’re merchants of destruction (who) moved thousands of kilos across the country with no conscience.”

The jury is scheduled to begin its deliberations today.