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U.S. says cocaine smuggled under Saudi prince's protection
Associated Press
Published March 9, 2005
MIAMI - Opening a drug smuggling trial Tuesday, federal prosecutors said a Saudi prince with diplomatic immunity helped the two defendants by flying 2 tons of Colombian cocaine from Venezuela to Paris on his personal aircraft.
The defense responded that the government's case is built on the word of a Colombian drug dealer who "duped" everyone.
Doris Mangeri Salazar, the prince's ex-girlfriend and a Coral Gables real estate agent, and Ivan Lopez Vanegas, who was extradited from Colombia, are on trial on a drug conspiracy charge carrying a possible life sentence as the alleged brokers for Colombian traffickers and the prince.
The defense said Juan Gabriel Usuga Norena, who was indicted with Medellin cartel kingpin Fabio Ochoa, is a liar trying to reduce his sentence.
Lopez attorney Alan Soven said Usuga's offer was simple: "I can get you the biggest fish in the world. How would you like a Saudi prince?"
"In their excitement to get the prince, they made a deal with the devil," Soven said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Selmore said there is plenty of evidence that Saudi prince and Swiss banker Nayef bin Sultan bin Fawwaz Al-Shaalan and his Colombian contacts plotted the cocaine delivery to a stash house in suburban Paris in 1999.
Lopez approached Usuga with a proposition for flying cocaine on the plane used by the prince, Selmore said. After marrying a royal princess, he flew the world with an entourage of dozens and diplomatic immunity that avoided luggage inspections.
Netted in the wide-ranging Colombian drug crackdown dubbed Operation Millennium, Usuga started helping U.S. drug investigators in 2000 and told the prince was involved. Mangeri was arrested in 2002 and Lopez was extradited in 2003.
Sentenced to less than three years in prison in the Ochoa indictment, Usuga wanted even less time. From prison, he offered up the story of the prince and his coterie, Soven claimed.
[Last modified March 9, 2005, 00:54:20]
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