Federal Agents Seize Cocaine Shipment Hidden With Broccoli

Almost 15,000 pounds of high-grade cocaine that had been shipped to Miami in a container packed with frozen broccoli has been seized in the culmination of what federal drug agents say is a two-year investigation of the Cali, Colombia, drug cartel.

Ten people were arrested, and agents also seized about $1 million worth of cash, jewelry and vehicles.

“Now we understand why the President said he doesn’t like broccoli,” joked William Rosenblatt, head of the U.S. Customs Service in Miami, referring to George Bush’s well-known distaste for the vegetable.

The arrests and seizures, which took place over the past week, are being hailed as a major setback to the Cali cartel, which has supplanted the better-known Medellin cartel as the major supplier of cocaine to the United States and Europe, according to Thomas Cash, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s top agent in Miami. He said as much as 80% of the cocaine entering the United States through Miami comes from Cali.

Among those arrested were Harold Ackerman, 43, a Colombian citizen and Miami resident since 1981, and Luis Fernando Murcillo, 40. While running a vegetable importing business, Ackerman was the drug barons’ “major ambassador” to Miami and “the most significant Cali cartel member we’ve ever arrested,” Cash said.

Murcillo, arrested in Miami last week as he attempted to board a flight to Cali, was described as a top lieutenant of cartel boss Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela.

Ackerman and Murcillo, along with eight others arrested, are being held on federal warrants pending criminal indictments on smuggling charges, said acting U.S. Atty. James G. McAdams III.

Federal agents also served warrants on 18 Miami area banks--along with others in San Mateo, Calif., New York and New Jersey--and seized $1.6 million controlled by Ackerman and other cartel members, officials said.

The arrests and seizures were announced at a high-profile press conference in the parking lot outside the DEA offices, where black-masked agents armed with automatic weapons stood around two trucks loaded with cardboard boxes said to be stuffed with cocaine.

Acting on information overheard in wiretaps during Operation Cornerstone, which led to the seizure in December of 30,000 pounds of cocaine hidden in concrete posts, agents tracked the vegetable shipment from the time it arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on April 16.