Miami Herald, The (FL)-July 3, 1987
Author: JOAN FLEISCHMAN Herald Staff Writer
Cocaine conspiracy charges have been dismissed against a Miami private investigator, the FBI said Thursday.
Alfredo "Al" Jose Lopez, 34, a highly respected former Metro-Dade homicide detective, was arrested June 12, one of 41 suspects picked up in a nationwide, three-year, $175 million money-laundering investigation.
The case was dubbed Operation Cashweb-Expressway.
"The U.S. Attorney's Office made a decision at this time not to prosecute," said Paul Miller, spokesman for the Miami FBI office. But, he said, "The investigation is continuing into all aspects of Cashweb."
"This whole thing had been a total nightmare," said Lopez, who spent three days in jail before he was released on his own recognizance.
Lopez was accused in the complaint of attempting to gather information on an undercover federal agent for a suspect in the Cashweb case.
Lopez, a partner in Sessler, Roadruck and Lopez Investigations, said he was asked by a lawyer to do routine background research for the attorney's client.
He said he met with the client, Carlos Eduardo Restrepo, who told him he wanted to know about a business associate.
Lopez said he researched public records, including criminal and civil court files. Restrepo called Lopez to find out what he learned. Lopez told Restrepo that his associate had no arrest record, and that he would do more research.
Lopez said Restrepo asked him if the man might be a federal agent. Lopez said he told that he could not find out.
The business associate turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. Restrepo's telephone was tapped.
"If he ever told me, 'Listen, I think this guy maybe is a cop,' I would have said forget it," said Lopez, who spent almost 13 years as a Metro-Dade police officer. "I was a victim of this whole thing."
"The bottom line in this case is that Al only did a public records search which every investigator in town does routinely," said Lopez's lawyer, Jose Quinon.
Federal prosecutors "decided there was not sufficient evidence to even warrant presenting it to the grand jury," Quinon said. "The complaint was dismissed without even seeking an indictment."
Quinon said he will ask to have Lopez's arrest record expunged.
Edition: FINAL
Section: LOCAL
Page: 4C
Record Number: 8702190319
Copyright (c) 1987 The Miami Herald
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