COLOMBIA COPS ARREST V.I. MAN ON DRUG CHARGE

James Spencer Springette, 38, of St. Thomas, has been arrested by agents of the Colombian security agency, DAS, in Medellin, Colombia, on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.
Springette was picked up on a U.S. government request, according to an Associated Press report.
DAS described Springette as an expert in mapping Caribbean routes used by cocaine traffickers.
He was living in a three-floor penthouse apartment with gold bathroom fixtures, costly oil paintings and a steel-reinforced front door, according to the AP report.
His passport showed 24 trips in and out of Colombia in the last four years, most of them to and from the United States via Panama, according to police.
He was captured carrying a Florida driver's license in the name of one of eight aliases he used, the AP story said.
A Drug Enforcement Agency official in St. Croix said Springette was the same person identified in an August 1997 court document as a "major trafficker in the illegal drug trade" and one of 12 people sought in a major drug investigation known as "RAIN," the Daily News reported Thursday.
Springette also organized a shipment of 1,260 kilograms (2,772 pounds) of cocaine through Tortola, the Daily News story said. That shipment ended in a shootout June 6, 1996, between police and several suspects.

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