Trafficking Trial Begins for 2 Colombians

Two Colombian nationals were depicted Wednesday as drug traffickers who were captured on videotape using an inventive scheme--molding cocaine and fiberglass into kennels--to ship the drug into the United States.

But as the federal trial for Henry Bustos and Harold Satizabal began in U.S. District Court, defense attorneys warned jurors that a key witness in the case is a federal informant they described as a “lying crack fiend” who was paid nearly $100,000 by federal authorities to be a snitch.

Defense attorney Hector Perez, who represents Satizabal against conspiracy and drug charges, indicated his defense will focus on claims that federal authorities entrapped the men. Perez told jurors the FBI was deeply involved with soliciting the transfer of drugs into the United States and induced the men to commit the crimes.

The men were arrested in October after a 16-month federal investigation, which involved intercepting the cocaine-laced kennels as they arrived in Miami, Assistant U.S. Atty. John Rayburn said.

Jurors will view videotapes and recorded telephone conversations implicating the defendants in trafficking, Rayburn said.

Federal prosecutors called Bustos the chemist behind the plan to fuse the cocaine into fiberglass, making near-perfect replicas of kennels before shipping the packages to the United States. The kennels were then pulverized, and crack cocaine was extracted from the remains, officials said. Satizabal made the shipping arrangements, federal prosecutors said.

One small cage shipped to the United States in 1991 produced more than three kilograms of powder cocaine, officials said. Two larger cages were shipped in October, 1992. Each yielded between four and seven kilograms of the drug.