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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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11-8-01 2 men, woman convicted in Miami drug, murder case. November 8, 2001
By JANE SUTTON MIAMI - Two men and a woman were convicted yesterday on charges they helped murder government witnesses to keep them from testifying in one of Miami's most infamous cocaine smuggling cases. A Miami federal court jury found Edward Lezcano, Jairo Castro and Yuby Ramirez guilty of one to three counts each of murder, although they were not accused of firing the fatal gunshots. They were also convicted of charges that they provided weapons, money, addresses and other help to assassins hired to kill the witnesses between 1989 and 1993. All three face life in prison at sentencing hearings set for Jan. 28, 29 and 30. "This verdict goes to the very heart of the criminal justice system," U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis said. "The message is loud and clear. . .you will not be able to threaten the United States government, its investigations or its witnesses. If you do, we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law." The murdered witnesses had been set to testify against alleged cocaine kingpins Agusto "Willie" Falcon and Salvador Magluta, who were accused of operating a multibillion-dollar drug smuggling enterprise. The "Willie and Sal" prosecution is one of the most infamous in Miami's sordid history as a drug smuggling capital. Falcon and Magluta were charged with trafficking more than 220,000 pounds of cocaine and earning $2 billion in profits between 1978 and 1991. A jury acquitted them in February 1996. Distraught at losing the case, then-U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey drowned his sorrows at a Miami strip club. A topless dancer accused him of biting her and, though the case was settled out of court, it led to his resignation. Shortly after the acquittal, jury foreman Miguel Moya, a modestly paid aircraft mechanic, bought a house in the Florida Keys, a speedboat, a Rolex watch and other luxury goods. In July 1999, a federal jury found the foreman guilty of accepting $500,000 in bribes to influence his jury. Falcon and Magluta, who are in prison on other charges, were indicted in August 1999 on charges of using murder, bribery, threats and perjury to corrupt a jury. They still face those charges. The three convicted Wednesday were accused of helping murder a lawyer who represented Falcon a decade ago and two co-defendants who were cooperating with prosecutors. Two other witnesses were shot but survived and another survived a bungled attempt to bomb his van. The chief witnesses against the three were brothers Juan Carlos Caicedo Ramos and Phanor Caicedo Ramos, who admitted coordinating killings. The brothers cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for reduced sentences of 20 years in prison. *
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