TAMPA - The federal government took a hit Tuesday in its ongoing efforts against overseas drug smuggling.

After a six-week trial involving 16 people from Lithuania and Ukraine accused of smuggling drugs, jurors deliberated for three days and came back with not one guilty verdict. They acquitted 15 of the defendants and couldn't agree on whether the remaining defendant was guilty.

All 16 were charged with possession of cocaine on a vessel subject to U.S. jurisdiction and could have spent 25 years to life in prison if convicted, said lawyer Ron Smith, who represented the freighter's deck chief, Vladimiras Pyzevskis. The verdict comes nearly a year after the men - crew members of the 500-foot freighter M/V Yalta - were arrested in connection with an apparent attempt to smuggle nearly 4 tons of cocaine.

Sailors from the British warship Iron Duke spotted the Panamanian freighter June 23 and alerted the U.S. Coast Guard. Coast Guard members found close to 4 tons of cocaine with a street value of $150-million in a semitrailer truck on the freighter.

The crew members were brought to Tampa several days later and arrested. They have spent the past year in the county jail. A 17th crew member, Efren Daniel Marquez-Silva of Colombia, pleaded guilty in September and agreed to testify as a government witness. The arrests were part of Operation Panama Express, a joint push by U.S. drug and law enforcement organizations including the Navy and the bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Jay Trezevant, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment on the verdict.

"This verdict is a major black eye to the government in their ongoing Panama Express operation," said Steve Crawford, one of the court-appointed defense attorneys. "The philosophy of "Let's arrest everybody and see if the evidence is there' lends itself to these kinds of verdicts."

The ship's captain, Yuri Chakhrach, 56, testified that he left Ukraine for Panama a month before the freighter left and knew nothing about the cocaine until the ship left port. Then he learned "cargo" would be brought aboard by smaller vessels, his attorney, Bjorn Brunvand, said.

"He was suspicious, he was concerned. But he was threatened on the phone to follow orders or risk death," Brunvand said.

Crawford said evidence showed the boat left Panama, was loaded with the cocaine off Venezuela and was bound for Buenos Aires or Poland - not the United States.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER

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