Pubdate: Thu, 22 Jun 2006
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2006 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Sarah Garland
Photo: Ways to smuggle heroin into the United States include hiding 
it in the padding of chairs, in the soles of flip-flops and in the 
lining of golf bags. (United States Department of Justice) 
http://www.mapinc.org/images/22heroin.650.jpg
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Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
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30 ARE ARRESTED IN BREAKUP OF MAJOR HEROIN SMUGGLING RING

Law enforcement officials yesterday announced the arrests of 30 people
in New York, Florida and Colombia accused of being members of a major
heroin smuggling ring. It ended what the officials said was the
biggest heroin trafficking investigation in New York history.

Officials in the United States attorney general's office and the Drug
Enforcement Administration said they had seized 257 pounds of heroin
during a two-year joint investigation with Colombian law enforcement
authorities into one of the city's top heroin suppliers.

Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, called the
international teamwork a "new model for drug investigations."

"It's the only one I know of that has come together in this way," Mr.
Garcia said at a news conference, adding that the drug operation had
been effectively dismantled. "Arrests were made along every single
step of this chain."

While American officials regularly share intelligence with their
foreign counterparts in the course of drug investigations, yesterday's
arrests were called the first successful collaboration on such a large
scale, the investigators said.

The investigation into the ring began in 2004 with an anonymous tip to
a heroin information telephone number set up by the Drug Enforcement
Agency in Colombia. Yesterday, Colombian officials arrested nine
people who the authorities say supplied two men in the Bronx who
served as wholesalers. The two suspected wholesalers, Roberto
Soto-Betran and Jaime Londono, were also arrested. A third person,
Jose Rodriguez Nieves, who was already in custody, was accused of
preparing the heroin in mills in the Bronx for retail distribution
under different brand names, including Hypnotiq and Body Bag.

Investigators said the operation had used various means to carry
heroin from Colombia to New York City, including concealing it in the
soles of flip-flops, in the lining of golf bags and inside antique
dining room chairs. They said the ring also used the method of having
human carriers swallow heroin-filled pellets.

Most of the heroin on the East Coast comes from Colombia, according to
the investigators, with much of it going through New York City before
reaching other cities. 
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