Nation IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Friends Acquitted of Drug Smuggling

The acquittal of two high-living friends accused of smuggling $2.1 billion in cocaine was a rejection of prosecutors’ reliance on plea deals and smugglers’ testimony, a defense lawyer said in Miami. Willie Falcon and Sal Magluta, who emigrated from Cuba as boys and were high school friends in the early 1970s, were acquitted by a jury on all 16 counts. The men, who still face money-laundering charges, were accused of smuggling 75 tons of cocaine from 1978 to 1991. Roy Black, Magluta’s lawyer, called the acquittal a repudiation of the idea that “if someone wants less jail time they can get it for saying something against the defendant.” Prosecution witnesses included current and former federal prisoners who cut deals.