Former Courier Describes Smuggling of $50 Million Inside Appliances : Courts: Profits from sale of cocaine paste were sent to Bolivia, witness says during trial of alleged drug kingpin.

A woman testifying against alleged cocaine kingpin Jorge Roca Suarez said in court Thursday that she helped smuggle more than $50 million in currency from the United States to Bolivia during 1985 and 1986, packing wrapped bundles of cash from drug profits into freezers, vacuum cleaners, stereo equipment and suitcases.

Federal prosecutors allege that Roca, 40, who was living in a 19-room home in San Marino at the time of his 1990 arrest, was supplying thousands of kilograms of Bolivian cocaine paste each week to Colombian drug traffickers in exchange for cash payments in the United States.

The testimony against Roca came on the fifth day of his federal trial in Los Angeles on money laundering and drug charges. If Roca is found guilty he could be imprisoned for the rest of his life.

Carmen Torres, a former housekeeper whose brother was once married to Roca’s sister, testified that while working for Roca she flew to Miami several times with suitcases stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars and gave the money to another courier to take out of the country.

Torres said in court that she and her former sister-in-law, Beatriz Roca, later began shipping the cash directly to Bolivia by hiding it in appliances and stereo equipment.

“We could hide about $200,000 in one speaker,” Torres said.

Federal customs agents testified that in March and April, 1986, they found nearly $3 million in cash hidden in packages addressed to Bolivia, including $400,000 hidden in two vacuum cleaners and $2 million in an upright freezer.

Prosecutors allege that the money belonged to Jorge Roca.

Several appliances purchased in Los Angeles by Torres and other members of Roca’s organization were the same ones discovered by federal agents filled with cash and bound for Bolivia, according to court testimony by federal agents and a San Gabriel Valley appliance salesman.

But Jorge Roca’s chief attorney, Yolanda Barrera, said outside court that prosecutors have been unable to prove that Roca ran the operation.

“We are not contesting there were appliances stuffed with money and that money was received, but my client was not directing any one to do it, nor was he present or have anything to do with the shipping,” Barrera said.

So far, Barrera said, the only evidence linking Jorge Roca to money laundering is Torres’ testimony.

Barrera said Roca got his money from longtime family holdings in Bolivia, as well as more than a dozen apartment buildings in Los Angeles. His property in the United States will be subject to forfeiture under federal laws if he is found guilty, she said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John F. Gibbons said Roca’s job was directing his cocaine and money laundering operation.

“The testimony is that he was at the top,” Gibbons said. “He was not involved in the day-to-day ministerial tasks but was in control of the individuals whose job it was to handle that.”

Torres, who has been granted immunity from federal prosecution in exchange for her testimony, said Beatriz Roca lured her into the money laundering business in August, 1985, by offering to pay her $3,000 a month and provide a free apartment.

Beatriz Roca later told Torres that the money the two of them were packing and shipping was earned by her brother by selling cocaine paste to members of Colombia’s drug cartel, who would refine the paste into cocaine for sale, Torres said in court.

Prosecutors allege that the Colombian drug dealers paid Roca cash in the United States for the shipments.

At one point, Jorge Roca offered Torres a job managing a part of the money laundering operation, but withdrew the offer, Torres said in court.

Torres testified that after a year in the business, the relationship between her and Beatriz Roca had soured. Torres later anonymously reported Jorge Roca to authorities.

Beatriz Roca pleaded guilty last month to money laundering charges and faces 15 years in prison when she is sentenced next month. She admitted in court to collecting and shipping the money at the direction of her brother, knowing that it came from the proceeds of illegal drug sales.

But those statements will not be admissible evidence in Jorge Roca’s trial, prosecutors said.

Six other Bolivian nationals, including Jorge Roca’s wife, have pleaded guilty to participating in the drug operation.