Alleged Cocaine Kingpin Held in Brazil

PANAMA CITY — Law enforcement authorities from several countries broke up what they say was one of the world’s biggest cocaine smuggling operations, responsible for as much as 10% of the Colombian contraband smuggled into the United States and Europe.

A prime target of the multi-pronged raid was alleged kingpin Pablo Rayo Montano, who the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said ran an operation so extensive that it was “almost as sophisticated as a small nation” and used its own rogue navy. Montano, a Colombian, was arrested Tuesday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one of 19 suspects detained there.

Authorities confiscated assets worth $70 million, including three islands that Montano controlled on Panama’s Caribbean coast, allegedly to refuel fast boats and fishing trawlers carrying drugs. Eight boats, including fuel tankers, and 34 vehicles were also seized in Panama.

Altogether, more than 30 arrests were made this week in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama and the United States, including one in Los Angeles.

Law enforcement authorities are still seeking a dozen or so suspects, including Freddy Rincon, a Colombian soccer star and veteran of several World Cups. He is suspected of being a front man for a fishing company called Nautipesca owned by Montano that allegedly smuggles cocaine. Rincon’s whereabouts was unknown late Friday.

Patricio Candanedo, Panama’s top anti-drug prosecutor, said in an interview that Montano’s operation had been shipping 15 tons of cocaine a month from Colombia to the United States.

How Montano gained control of the three Panamanian islands, which are near the entrance to the Panama Canal, is being investigated, Candanedo said.

The Montano organization also owned the largest fishing supply store in Panama, a well- known restaurant in Portobello, five homes and a major hotel in Panama City, officials said. Montano is believed to have fled Panama in 2003 for Brazil.

The arrests illustrated how the drug industry is divided into cultivation, production, transportation and financing units, analysts said. DEA spokesman Steve Robertson said the arrests and seizures, culminating a three-year effort dubbed Operation Two Oceans, were an example of successful cooperation among several countries, with key roles played by police in Panama and Brazil.

The Brazilian Federal Police made arrests despite the battles it was fighting this week with prison gangs in Sao Paulo that left more than 150 people dead, Robertson said.

Candanedo, the Panamanian official, said the Montano organization was also suspected of participating in drugs-for-arms exchanges, for which Panama is a major platform. The gang also managed a high-tech money laundering operation, he said.

DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy said in a statement that Montano’s group was associated with paramilitary and rebel operations in Colombia known for drug cultivation and trafficking.

Montano, 46, is originally from Buenaventura, a port city in Colombia that is now a nexus of coca cultivation and cocaine processing and exports. U.S. officials are expected to formally file for Montano’s extradition to Miami, where money laundering and cocaine possession charges against him and other gang members have been filed.

Montano’s top deputies -- Jackson Orozco-Gil, his brother Domingo and Mars Micolta-Hurtado were also arrested. They are suspected of overseeing operations along Colombia’s Caribbean coast.