The State - News from July 22, 1988

A Colombian who authorities said was dealing with the Medellin drug cartel has been convicted in San Francisco of conspiring to smuggle a ton of cocaine into the United States. Alvaro Echavarria-Olarte, 50, was found guilty by a jury of two conspiracy charges and six of 11 other related counts. He is to be sentenced Aug. 3 by U.S. District Judge Charles Legge and could get a life term. Echavarria was one of 16 people arrested last year when federal and local authorities broke up what they said was a plot to smuggle a ton of cocaine, worth about $48 million on the street, from Colombia to San Francisco. Assistant U.S. Atty. John Stephen Graham said the plot came to light when one of the conspirators approached a pilot, who was an undercover drug agent, and asked him to fly the cocaine in a jet plane that would be leased for $123,000. Graham said Echavarria was a broker who dealt directly with the Medellin cartel, considered the world’s largest cocaine ring.