SON OF COLOMBIAN ANTI-DRUG OFFICIAL PLEADS INNOCENT TO SMUGGLING

MIAMI -- (AP) -- The teen-age son of a top Colombian anti-drug
official pleaded innocent today to heroin smuggling charges that
carry a possible life prison sentence.

Andres Lafourie Restrepo, 19, remains held on $250,000 on a
four-count indictment charging him with heroin smuggling, possession
and conspiracy. No trial date has been scheduled.

Restrepo allegedly arrived last month at Miami International Airport
on a flight from Colombia with 7.3 pounds of heroin taped to his
calves.

Restrepo's co-defendant, Juan Pablo Mejia, 18, faces the same charges
and bond requirements.

Restrepo's mother, Maria Restrepo, heads the Colombian agency known
by its Spanish acronym PLANTE, which helps create new livelihoods for
farmers who agree to stop growing coca and poppy plants used to make
cocaine and heroin.

She said her son appeared to have been caught like other ``mules,''
the slang term for drug carriers who carry hidden stashes of drugs
out of Colombia in return for promised payments in the thousands of
dollars.