FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

In the first-ever partnership between the Treasury Department and Christie's, Treasury Under Secretary for Enforcement Raymond W. Kelly announced today that the auction house will sell a collection of 33 rare diamonds seized by the U.S. Customs Service from an infamous drug smuggler.

The diamonds, which are valued between $400,000 and $500,000, will be sold by Christie's to benefit Treasury's Asset Forfeiture Fund which supports federal, state and local law enforcement efforts including crime prevention and drug abuse programs.

"Treasury's forfeiture program destroys the building blocks that support drug traffickers and takes the profit out of crime," said Under Secretary Kelly. "The 33 diamonds ranging in value from $2,000 to $120,000 represent this drug dealer's bank where he stored his ill-gotten gains."

The investigation leading to the diamonds seizure is the story of a 12-year manhunt involving drug smuggling, secret bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein and international communications.

In 1982, Customs agents discovered that Stephen William Jenks, the former diamonds owner, and his organization had been involved in at least 17 drug smuggling ventures bringing some 55,000 pounds of marijuana from Colombia to Florida between 1978-1982. Upon learning he was under investigation, Jenks and his girlfriend fled to Europe where they lived for the next 12 years.

Jenks returned to the United States using false identification and was again living in Florida with his now wife. Jenks was using an elaborate communications system of false mail-drops to communicate with his associates when law enforcement authorities traced a call to Fort Meyers, Florida.

On July 23, 1994, Jenks was arrested by Customs agents at a trailer park. Jenks pled guilty to four counts of drug trafficking, conspiracy and tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison and agreed to forfeit all his property financed by drug money including the 33 diamonds.

The diamonds, referred to as fancy colored diamonds, range in size from a quarter carat to more than three carats. Their cuts are rectangular, marquise, oval, circular and heart-shaped. Their colors run the spectrum from the near colorless to intense purplish-pink to intense yellow. There's even a highly valuable and equally rare blue diamond.

Christie's will auction the diamonds on behalf of the Treasury Department on April 6 and 7 in New York.

For more information on future U.S. Treasury auctions, please call 703-273-7373 or check our website at www.treas.gov/auctions.