-Caveat Lector- http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news- 6/104278762279370.xml?starledger
A new blend: Cotton, rayon and heroin Smugglers slip drug-soaked clothes through ports Friday, January 17, 2003 BY ROBERT RUDOLPH Star-Ledger Staff Federal authorities in New Jersey say a stealthy new technique for smuggling drugs into the country is on the rise and is flooding the metropolitan area with a half-billion dollars worth of high-quality heroin each year. According to investigators, increasingly large quantities of drugs have been slipping past inspectors, concealed in seemingly ordinary clothing -- only these clothes have been specially prepared and impregnated with liquid heroin that can be extracted once the clothes arrive in the United States. "They're killing us," said one federal law enforcement official who expressed alarm over the situation. A court document prepared by the U.S. Customs Service last year said, "In the past several months, Customs officials throughout the country have made numerous arrests of individuals who were attempting to smuggle heroin soaked in clothing into the country." Tom Manifase, assistant special agent in charge of investigations for the U.S. Customs Service in New Jersey, said almost half of all heroin seized by authorities at the Newark ports of entry last year was concealed in drug-infused clothing, usually packed in suitcases rather than worn by the smugglers. During the same period, he said, tens of millions of dollars worth of the drug has been detected in clothes by inspectors at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and almost twice as much has been brought in through other locations nationally. Regardless of the point of entry, investigators say, most, if not all, of the drug was destined for delivery to the New York metropolitan area. During an undercover investigation, a court-ordered wiretap recorded one smuggling suspect boasting that the extracted drugs were "100 percent pure" and "strong enough to knock down an elephant." Authorities have expressed concern not only over what they say is the dramatic rise in the use of drug-soaked clothing to bring the narcotic into the United States, but in the problems it presents to inspectors at the air and seaports. "It is very difficult for inspectors to detect," Manifase acknowledged, noting that the only tip-off is that the clothes appear stiffer than usual, as though they had been starched. But even then, he said, some of the smugglers are using heavy denim jeans -- which are somewhat stiff already -- to throw inspectors off the track. "It's a real challenge," said John Varrone, who oversees criminal investigations for the U.S. Customs Service in New Jersey and New York. "It's a serious threat." However, drug-infused clothing is only the latest in a seemingly endless series of schemes to smuggle drugs past Customs inspectors. Varrone said investigations have shown that 90 percent of the smuggling operations using the saturated clothing are based in Colombia. Martin Ficke, associate special agent in charge of Customs investigations in New Jersey, said the process has evolved over the last several years. Early attempts were easy to detect because of a distinct vinegar-like odor that would waft out of suitcases containing the treated clothing. Now, Ficke said, chemists have "refined the process" to eliminate the odor and make the drug virtually undetectable, defeating even random searches by drug- detecting dogs. According to Manifase, 100 pounds of saturated clothing can yield as much as 10 pounds of pure heroin. He said the major Colombian organizations have "perfected the technique" and "are able to extract the maximum amount, and with the pure white color." Experts say the treatment of the clothes -- and the extraction of the drugs - - requires special training, with chemists being schooled by drug organizations in Colombia and then sent to the United States. Authorities were able to obtain a detailed look inside the operation last year when an investigation resulted in the arrest of a Colombia-trained suspect in Queens. The suspect, who is cooperating with investigators, worked for several smuggling organizations as an in-house chemist to process the impregnated goods, authorities said. At the time of his arrest, authorities found the suspect running a makeshift lab in his apartment -- with a pot on the stove full of the clothing he was "cooking." Wiretaps of conversations between drug smugglers revealed that they commonly use the code word "cotton" to describe the impregnated clothing, which is often delivered to the extraction labs in laundry bags. Authorities have also learned that the removal of the drugs is a time- consuming, five-step process that involves subjecting the treated goods to direct sunlight. Experts said the liquid is cooked down until the drug becomes solid. The process recovers nearly all of the drug. In one instance, government taps picked up a chemist complaining that the process was turning his place into a mess. According to one agent, the chemist stated he was "sick of it because the floor is white from him trying to clean it, and no matter how much he tried to clean the floor, it was still like a piece of white paper." A<:>E<:>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article has to stand on its own merits. 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