DOG NEWSHEROIN HIDDEN IN PUPPIES
NEW YORK: Colombian drug dealers smuggled heroin into the United States by surgically implanting the powerful drug into puppies, the Drug Enforcement Administration said on Wednesday.
Special Agent-in-Charge John Gilbride of the DEA's New York Field Division said in a statement that 21 Colombian nationals were arrested on Wednesday for smuggling over 20 kilograms (44 lb) of heroin, worth $20 million at street prices, into the United States.
Among the methods used to transport the drugs were human couriers, who swallowed heroin packets, as well as the Labrador Retriever puppies. In one planned shipment, six puppies were found impregnated with three 3 kg (6.6 lb) of liquid heroin packets.
DEA spokeswoman Erin McKenzie-Mulvey said that in January 2005, DEA officers and police in Colombia found six puppies with scars on their bellies at a makeshift veterinarian clinic on a rural property.
Ultrasound scans revealed the heroin hidden inside the young dogs, three of which later died of infection. Another four puppies were found with no drugs inside them, she said.
McKenzie-Mulvey said the traffickers had planned to retrieve the heroin after the dogs had passed U.S. customs.
She said the surviving dogs are now, "living happily with families in Colombia."
The smugglers also hid heroin in body creams and aerosol cans and sewed it into the lining of purses and luggage, the DEA said.
"The organization's outrageous and heinous smuggling method of implanting heroin inside puppies is a true indication of the extent that drug dealers go to make their profit," Gilbride said.
Wednesday's arrests -- 20 in Colombia and one in North Carolina -- followed a two-year investigation with Colombian police of a drug ring based in Medellin, Colombia, whose network reached from Miami to New York, the DEA said.
The DEA hopes to bring nine of those arrested to New York to face charges. Colombia is the main supplier of heroin to the United States.
Source: Reuters, 2 Februari 2006.