Pubdate: Sun, 04 Dec 2005
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2005 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Author: Pedro Ruz Gutierrez

DETAILS EMERGE ABOUT SUSPECT IN INTERNATIONAL HEROIN CASE

On paper, Luis Lopez listed his occupation as vice president of 
Estherling Investment Inc., and he owned several properties in 
Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties.

In reality, authorities say, Lopez was a major figure in an 
international heroin-trafficking ring that federal agents in Boston 
and national police in Colombia dismantled last week.

Lopez, 51, divided his time between homes in south Seminole County 
and Massachusetts and often traveled to New York, where he once was 
arrested for dealing ounce quantities of heroin in the 1990s.

Lopez, also identified by authorities as "Gordo," was arrested again 
Wednesday at a $780,000 home in the gated community of Stonehurst in 
the Oviedo area. He was indicted last month along with 16 other 
defendants -- including four in Colombia -- in Boston on federal 
charges of conspiracy to import and distribute more than 2.2 pounds of heroin.

Neighbors at the upscale subdivision said this week that they were 
shocked to learn the man who helped put up Christmas decorations on 
the two-story home on Old Carriage Trail a few days ago was under 
scrutiny by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"It's a little creepy," said one resident who did not want to be 
identified. "It's a little scary. Truthfully, it's not what I hoped 
for when I moved in here."

Authorities say Lopez belonged to an organization responsible for 
smuggling 55 pounds of heroin worth $6.25 million into the United 
States every month.

According to officials, some of the heroin was sewn into the lining 
of clothes and shoe soles, which were secretly exchanged between 
employees in Colombian airports and so-called mules -- airline 
passengers recruited to fly to the U.S.

A 78-page affidavit by an Everett, Mass., police sergeant assigned to 
a DEA task force outlines Lopez's many phone calls to Colombia in 
which officials say he coordinated heroin shipments and discussed 
wire transfers of drug proceeds. The document details several 
recorded conversations and meetings Lopez had with associates and 
accused drug couriers in New York and Boston.

"The investigation has revealed that Lopez has arranged to import 
large quantities of heroin . . . from Colombia and other locations 
from outside the United States for re-distribution in Massachusetts," 
wrote Sgt. James Picardi of the Everett Police Department.

On Oct. 7, police in the Colombian port of Cartagena seized 35 pounds 
of heroin worth $4 million hidden in Asian artwork, which was part of 
a furniture shipment destined for Lopez in Florida, the affidavit says.

"Behind the allure of artwork lurked the poison of heroin," DEA 
Administrator Karen Tandy said Wednesday in a statement to announce 
Operation High Step. "Heroin promises anything but beauty."

The night before the seizure, Lopez's associate Julio Cartagena, a 
47-year-old owner of a cell-phone store in the Boston area, 
telephoned Lopez and fretted about delays in the shipment, 
authorities said. "Don't worry," Lopez was overheard saying. "It's 
going to be today [Oct. 6]. . . . Today, it's going to happen. As 
soon as I'm ready, I'll call you."

In another call that night, Cartagena wanted reassurances: "Are the 
CDs playing already? Do you have them in your hands?" he asked, 
according to excerpts of the intercepted conversation.

Authorities said CDs is code for heroin shipments.

Lopez responded: "The CDs. . . Sleep tight. Sleep tight."

In another conversation in late October, Picardi wrote, Lopez called 
his source in Colombia known as "La Iguana" to arrange for weekly 
deliveries of 6.6 pounds of pure heroin with a street value of at 
least $750,000.

On Nov. 7, Lopez traveled to New York City to deliver $50,000 in drug 
proceeds to secure a future shipment from Colombia, authorities said.

Also known as Louis Lopez Gonzalez, the Dominican-born felon served 
three years in a New York state prison for selling heroin four times 
to an undercover officer in Manhattan in 1993, according to 
correctional records.

He was paroled and released in 1997. By late 2001, Lopez bought a 
house in the Aloma Woods subdivision in south Seminole County.

Last year, property records show, he and his wife bought the 
6,147-square-foot corner-lot home in Stonehurst, where residents say 
the couple kept to themselves and were not friendly.

Lopez's wife, Estherling Morales, refused to discuss the 
early-morning arrest by the Central Florida High Intensity Drug 
Trafficking Area task force. "I have nothing to say about that," she 
said before hanging up.

Lopez is being held without bail at the Seminole County Jail pending 
his transfer to Boston.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman