DRUG BUST PROVIDES TRAINING BONANZA

TAMPA - Drug agents called it the second-largest heroin bust in
Florida history, but what amazed them more was the wide variety of
ways smugglers secreted the drug aboard a cruise ship.

About 128 pounds of heroin was sewn into the quilted linings of coats,
secreted in the soles of shoes, hidden inside the cloth cover of a CD
holder, stashed inside aerosol perfume bottles, concealed in an office
planner, stuffed into cameras, and crammed into hollow plastic
hairbrushes and lint removers.

Customs inspectors said they are schooled in detecting these
techniques but rarely encounter one group using so many of them.

``It's a virtual training class for inspectors,'' said Steven J Trent,
special agent in charge of the Tampa office of the Bureau of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Trent joined officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration,
Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and the Tampa Police Department
at a news conference Wednesday.

Using several methods of concealment ``at one time on one cruise ship
is quite unusual,'' said Denise Crawford, director of field operations
in Tampa for CPB.

The largest bust involved 135 pounds of heroin seized in Miami in
1991, authorities said.

Dominic Albanese, special agent in charge of the Tampa DEA office,
estimated the cruise ship heroin would fetch millions on the street.

Seven people - five Venezuelans, one Colombian and one German - were
questioned as they left the cruise ship Noordam Sunday and were later
charged with possession of the drug.

At least one defendant agreed to cooperate with investigators and
traveled to New York. Four people were arrested there Tuesday and
Wednesday at a hotel after being told to pick up the drug for
distribution in that city, agents said. Those four consisted of two
Americans, one Dominican and one Venezuelan citizen.

Coincidentally, the original seven heroin suspects were on the same
ship as two other passengers who were arrested and charged with
smuggling more than 44 pounds of cocaine in several pairs of pants in
their suitcases. The two groups of smugglers did not appear to be
related, Trent said. The cocaine was headed to Miami.

The FBI received a phone tip about the heroin.

``We had information regarding the vessel, and everybody was keyed up
and ready to hit that ship,'' Trent said. ``These guys with the
cocaine were definitely at the wrong place at the wrong time.''

Inspectors usually use one drug-sniffing dog to inspect cruise liner
luggage, Trent said. This time, there were two.

The ship, which holds 1,214 passengers, is operated by Holland America
Cruise Lines. It had completed a 14-day cruise, visiting seven ports
of call, the last of which was the Cayman Islands.

This is the second drug arrest involving a cruise ship in the past six
weeks, Trent said. He said the last one involved a Jamaican passenger
carrying 2 kilograms, or about 4.4 pounds, of cocaine.

The recent arrests are unusual, he said, because they involve cruise
ship passengers. Cruise ship drug arrests typically involve small
groups of crew members smuggling 2 to 5 kilograms of cocaine, he said.

Three of the people arrested in Tampa for the heroin were members of
the same family, a father, son and daughter: Luis Gomez, 44, Luis E.
Gomez, 21, and Lorena Gomez, 19.

Also charged were Elizabeth Dugarte, 39, Manfred Grunfeld, 36, Maria
Gomez, 43, and Francisco Javier Trejos, 27. The names of those
arrested in New York were not available late Wednesday.