Key Figure Changes Plea to Guilty in Drug Case : Court: Otoniel Urrego will receive eight years for conspiracy to sell cocaine. He was awaiting a second trial on felony charges.

In an unexpected compromise by prosecutors, the key figure in the biggest drug money laundering case in Ventura County history was allowed to plead guilty Friday to a reduced charge in exchange for an eight-year prison sentence.

Otoniel Urrego, 64, described by his attorney as “broken and dispirited,” unexpectedly withdrew his not-guilty plea while awaiting a second trial on felony charges of conspiracy to sell cocaine and money laundering.

Urrego pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to transport and sell more than three pounds of cocaine. A money-laundering charge is to be dismissed at sentencing April 23 as part of the plea bargain.

As part of the plea agreement, the district attorney’s office also dismissed a special allegation that more than 100 pounds of cocaine was involved, a charge that carries a 15-year sentence.

After jurors deadlocked for conviction at the first trial last month, prosecutors expressed confidence that Urrego would be found guilty at a retrial in September.

But Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin J. McGee said Friday his office decided to accept the eight-year deal because potential legal problems might have made it difficult for prosecutors to win a conviction in a second trial.

Key pieces of evidence that had been admitted at the first trial might have been precluded at the second trial, McGee said. He said the evidence “was needed to paint the complete picture” about Urrego’s involvement in the Medellin cocaine cartel in Colombia.

Prosecutors also took into account Urrego’s age and poor health, McGee said.

“We think under the circumstances it’s a fair and appropriate disposition,” he said.

Urrego is the second person to plead guilty in connection with the seizure of $2.5 million in cash in May, 1989, when Urrego’s brother and two sisters-in-law were arrested in Simi Valley and Chatsworth.

Prosecutors say the money was earmarked for shipment to Colombia, and that in the two months preceding the seizure Urrego oversaw the transport of $25 million in drug money out of the country.

Deputy Public Defender Todd W. Howeth said his client remains adamant that he is innocent but decided to plead guilty because “he didn’t have the physical wherewithal to fight the government any more.”

“Essentially he’s been broken and dispirited from the whole process,” Howeth said. “He just felt that while he had some dignity left he ought to put an end to it.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. James Grunert said there is no doubt Urrego was a high-ranking official in the drug cartel.

“There is no question in my mind, none whatsoever, that Oto was the person that committed the crimes that we charged,” Grunert said.

Urrego’s health problems--he is confined to a wheelchair because of back problems--contributed to his decision to plead guilty, Howeth said. Urrego decided to plead guilty, in part, because now he will be sent to a prison facility that is equipped to handle a handicapped person, Howeth said.

At Urrego’s trial earlier this year, Grunert mapped out an intricate paper trail to show that the defendant used a fax machine and telephone in Florida to monitor the shipment of $25 million from Simi Valley to Colombia.

The prosecutor also presented evidence that Urrego oversaw the shipment of drug money from New York, Chicago and Denver, but he was charged only with activities tied to the Simi Valley operation.

A key prosecution witness in the trial was Luz Urrego, Otoniel Urrego’s sister-in-law, who pleaded guilty to participating in the money laundering operation in a deal that called for her to testify against her brother-in-law.

She testified that Urrego closely monitored the money-laundering operation. Sobbing at times while on the witness stand, the 39-year-old widow also said he was a father figure to her three daughters.

Howeth said Urrego considers himself a grandfather to Luz Urrego’s children, and his main concern is their welfare.

“The last thing he said to me today is he loves his sister-in-law,” the defense attorney said. “He almost approves of what she did. He understands.”

The two remaining suspects in the money laundering case--Otoniel Urrego’s brother, Floriberto Urrego, and Floriberto’s wife, Marta--are in Colombia and cannot be prosecuted unless they return to this country, officials said.