Pubdate: Wed, 14 Sep 2005
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2005 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Author: Laura Crimaldi  and O'Ryan Johnson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN'S JOURNEY TRACES COKE TRAIL

Colombia Joins Trade

Once shuttled into New England from Burma, Thailand or Afghanistan, a 
cheaper, purer heroin is now being sent to the Hub from Colombia via 
established cocaine trafficking routes, drug enforcement agents say. "They 
had  routes they used for cocaine and just like any other organization, if 
it was  successful, why not use it for another drug," said Tony Pettigrew, 
a spokesman  for the Drug Enforcement Administration's New England Field 
Division. While drug  enforcement agents say there is no single heroin 
trafficking route, smack typically makes its way to Massachusetts through 
Florida and then New York City.

Smugglers  stash heroin in cargo shipments, send it in the mail or fill 
condoms with it and  swallow them. Once the heroin is within U.S. borders, 
it arrives at its final  destination by motor vehicle, said state police 
Lt. Dennis Brooks, who is  assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney's 
Office. "What  we're seeing is more heroin at a cheaper price and the 
purity is some of the  highest because it's not being cut," said Brooks. 
The number  of Massachusetts residents being treated for heroin addiction 
has climbed from  44,000 to 56,000 in recent years, he said, attributing 
the spike to the  OxyContin craze, which is addicting people to opiates at 
a younger age. Heroin hits the street in a rock form that is broken down 
into a powder and sold for as  little as $4 to $6 per bag. The DEA 
classifies heroin into four categories  depending on where it comes from: 
South American, Mexican, Southeast Asian and  Southwest Asian.

The  presence of South American heroin manufactured in Colombia has been on 
the rise  since 1993, and is most prevalent in New England and along the 
East Coast,  according to the DEA's Web site.

The South  American heroin is brought in onboard commercial flights by 
couriers who carry  about a pound to 2 pounds at a time. That region's 
heroin sellers broke into an  already saturated Northeastern drug market by 
offering higher purity at lower  prices than the competition, the DEA 
states. Mexico has  been exporting its own brand of brownish heroin, as 
well as black tar heroin, to  the states for decades.

The drug exporters' border proximity allows them to  evade agents by 
filling single customers' orders and keeping amounts that cross through 
checkpoints in weights smaller than a kilogram. This  practice also 
prevents agents from making large drug seizures.

The Mexican  product typically moves into the United States through migrant 
workers and  illegal immigrants driving private vehicles.

But while the potent drugs routinely land on U.S. soil, so far the dealers 
have not been able to penetrate the lucrative East Coast markets.

Far less  prevalent is heroin from markets in Thailand, China, Afghanistan 
and Pakistan,  which follows tortuous, roundabout trails through African 
and East Asian ports  before entering the United States. Although  Chinese 
and Thai heroin was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, 
shipments  from that region have declined since the indictment and 
extradition of more than  a dozen drug lords to the United States. Still, 
the "war on drugs" remains a  drawn-out battle.

"Everything  we do is being thwarted," said former Boston-based undercover 
agent Paul E.  Doyle. "It's like putting your finger in the dam. The only 
way we are going to  stop it is if we make it a priority.It's in a holding 
pattern."
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman