Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992 TAG: 9203110293
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Because Jose De La Cruz Rivera cooperated with federal authorities by testifying against his Colombian partner, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant asked for reduced sentence.
Rivera, a Panamanian who lives in Fort Lauderdale, was indicted with Jose Ignacio Henao last year. Henao, who jumped a $250,000 bond, was tried in his absence earlier this year and convicted by a federal jury in Roanoke.
Authorities said Rivera began transporting cocaine in 1983 from Florida to Roanoke, where local contacts would distribute the drug.
According to the indictment, Rivera and Henao agreed to bring five kilograms of cocaine to Roanoke in January 1991. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Rivera at a Salem motel. He had three kilograms of cocaine - valued at $475,000 - with him. Agents arrested Henao a half-hour later at a motel across the street.
Rivera cried on the witness stand Tuesday, saying he had never been in trouble before and was ashamed of his decision to become involved in drug trafficking. He said he had never used cocaine and was in the venture simply for the profit.
Defense attorney Tony Anderson asked U.S. District Judge James Turk to give Rivera a suspended sentence because he was only a middle man and had cooperated with authorities.
But Bondurant asked that Rivera be sentenced to six years in prison because he had been involved in the drug trade since the early 1980s and "I think he's more involved than just this one event."
by CNB