clari.news.drugs (moderated) #575 [1] Comment: Subject mapped from all upper case From: C-reuters@clarinet.com (Reuters) Newsgroups: clari.local.florida,clari.news.drugs Distribution: clari.reuters [1] Phone Calls Lead to Cocaine Smugglers Copyright: 1994 by Reuters, R Date: Wed Aug 10 21:30:05 EDT 1994 Lines: 18 TAMPA, Fla (Reuter) - Authorities seized more than a ton of cocaine and arrested 11 people Wednesday, using information gleaned from the smugglers' cellular phone calls, a sheriff's spokesman said. The smugglers had tampered with the cellular phones to make it appear as if the calls were made from other telephone numbers. But U.S. Customs agents and local deputies eavesdropped on the conversations, using sophisticated technology to trace the calls to their true sources, said Jack Espinosa, spokesman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The investigators learned the cocaine was being sent from Panama to Miami in a shipping container with false walls, then tracked the shipment to Tampa. They arrested 10 people in Tampa and one in Miami on racketeering and cocaine trafficking charges and seized the cocaine. It weighed in at 2,205 pounds, and is worth about $95