Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jun 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Benjamin Weiser

OFFICIALS SAY HEROIN ARRESTS SHOW NEW SUPPLY ROUTES

Federal authorities said yesterday that they had broken up a major 
Colombian drug-exporting ring that was smuggling millions of dollars worth 
of heroin each month into New York and elsewhere.

Prosecutors said that among the 25 people arrested, both in New York and 
Colombia, were the group's leader and two top aides. The extradition of the 
three to the United States is now being sought.

The arrests highlight what the authorities say has been the use of 
increasingly sophisticated smuggling techniques and the emergence of 
Colombia as a successor to Asia as the major heroin supplier to the United 
States.

In describing the new techniques, James B. Comey, the United States 
attorney in Manhattan, told of chemists working in Colombian laboratories 
who dissolved heroin into clothing that was folded and packed in suitcases 
and carried by couriers into the United States. Then, chemists in this 
country extracted the heroin and had it prepared for sale on the street, he 
said.

"Heroin is back in New York, and it is back with a vengeance," Mr. Comey 
said. He added that, while 20 years ago, the heroin sold on the streets of 
New York came from Southwest and Southeast Asia, "The Colombian drug lords 
have branched out from cocaine and have come to dominate that traffic."

Felix J. Jimenez, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement 
Administration's New York field office, said United States investigators 
worked closely in the yearlong investigation with Colombian law enforcement 
authorities, including sharing intelligence information developed in both 
countries.

Mr. Comey, who was joined at a news conference by a general from the 
Colombian National Police, said the drug ring was "among the most powerful, 
the most dominant heroin organizations in the world."

Prosecutors said the group smuggled 10 to 20 kilograms of heroin, with a 
street value of $1.5 to $3 million, into the United States each month.

Mr. Comey said the Colombians' move into the American marketplace reflected 
"just economics." In the last decade, he said, Colombian drug lords, long 
major cocaine exporters, realized they could also grow opium in the 
Colombian climate. By selling at high purity and a low price, he said, they 
saw they could make inroads into the market share held by the Asian countries.

"It's what we might call in another market 'predatory pricing,' " Mr. Comey 
said, "and they essentially captured the market, particularly here on the 
East Coast, but throughout most of the country."

The indictment, unsealed yesterday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, 
charges that the organization, led by Jose Jairo Garcia-Giraldo, bought 
heroin on the open market after it was grown on farms and refined in 
laboratories. The heroin was then prepared for smuggling in special 
packaging mills, where it was "secreted in hidden compartments in luggage 
and soaked into clothing for transit to the United States," the indictment 
said.

Couriers then carried the heroin into the United States on commercial 
flights, for distribution in New York City, Philadelphia and Boston. Some 
was transported in less sophisticated ways as well, Mr. Comey said. For 
example, he said, Colombian investigators have seized 15 kilograms of 
heroin, much of it in pellet form, suggesting that it was to be swallowed 
by people known as mules, who would then carry it into the United States.

Along with Mr. Garcia-Giraldo, the United States government is seeking the 
extradition of his brother, Fabio, who the indictment said coordinated 
shipments to the United States through Ecuador and the recruiting of 
couriers. Also sought was Juan Carlos Giraldo-Perez, who was described as 
overseeing the packaging of the organization's heroin. The government also 
indicted several people it called "New York based distributors" for the group.

None of those arrested in New York appeared in court for arraignment yesterday.

The government said that, among other things, it had seized $490,000 in 
drug proceeds in New York and 55 pounds of heroin-soaked clothing from a 
courier in Houston.

Mr. Comey said that the heroin "made the clothing fairly rough - you 
wouldn't want to wear it."
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