Trial Opens for Alleged Drug Baron : Narcotics: The defendant is accused of heading a Bolivian group that shipped cocaine paste to Colombia, then reaped ‘boxfuls of cash’ in L.A.

On the opening day of a high-profile drug case, prosecutors said Jorge Roca Suarez, the defendant, commanded a powerful cocaine cartel that shipped thousands of kilograms of cocaine paste to Colombia and collected “boxfuls of cash” in Los Angeles.

According to prosecutors, Roca and his Bolivian organization were receiving “millions of dollars a week” at the height of their enterprise. Roca supplied cocaine paste to Colombian drug traffickers led by cartel boss Pablo Escobar, and the Colombians converted the paste into powder and then shipped it to the United States, prosecutors said.

Once the drugs were sold, the Colombians paid Roca and his associates in the United States, and they then shipped huge sums of cash back to Colombia, some of it by courier and the rest through money launderers or stuffed inside appliances, Assistant U.S. Atty. John F. Gibbons said during his opening statement.

Gibbons presented a photograph of a vacuum cleaner that was seized as it was being shipped out of the country. Inside the vacuum, which he said was purchased by members of Roca’s organization, were hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“All of this was officially run by Jorge Roca Suarez,” Gibbons said. “It was all run to meet his contractual obligations to the Colombians.”

Roca’s lawyers declined to present their opening arguments Tuesday, preferring to wait until after the prosecution completes its case. But Yolanda Barrera, Roca’s lead attorney, said during a break in the proceedings that Roca did not head the cartel, and she questioned the credibility of some of the government’s expected witnesses.

One of those witnesses, Carlos Villarroel, took the stand late Tuesday and testified at length about his association with Roca. Villarroel, in sometimes rambling testimony, said he had introduced Roca to the Colombian traffickers and subsequently oversaw several shipments of cocaine paste from Roca to the Colombian cartel.

Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Atty. Walter F. Brown, Villarroel described a September, 1983, meeting between Roca and the leaders of the Colombian organization, known as “Los Padros.” At that meeting, according to Villarroel, Roca and one of the Colombians discussed the quality and price of the “merchandise” that Roca would supply.

According to Villarroel, Roca “guaranteed the merchandise.”

As the meeting concluded, Escobar entered the room and greeted Roca, the witness added. Escobar--who in those days was both a right-wing populist politician and a major drug trafficker--allegedly told Roca that as part of the deal Roca would be required to give two kilograms from every planeload to Escobar as a gift.

“He needed to give presents to the poor people to build more homes for them,” Villarroel said.

He also said Roca and the Colombians struck a deal and within days began shipping drugs.

Barrera and her co-counsel did not get the chance to begin cross-examining Villarroel on Tuesday, but Barrera said they expect to raise the issue of government payments to Villarroel, who was a confidential informant, as well as other deals it has cut with him in exchange for his cooperation.

“How can you believe someone like that?” she asked. “Whatever is good for him at the moment is what he will say.”

The testimony Tuesday was dotted with unfamiliar names and places, and U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who is presiding in the case, intervened several times to clear up confusion. On a few occasions, he even took over the questioning himself, and at the end of the hearing he warned prosecutors that their presentation was muddled and difficult to follow.

“There is so much detail that the big picture is getting lost,” Wilson said. “I’m concerned about clarity. . . . There’s a lot at stake here.”

Tuesday’s witnesses marked just the beginning of a case expected to last at least two to three weeks.