U.S. COLONEL IS IMPLICATED IN DRUG CASE

A United States Army colonel who once led the government's antidrug
campaign in Colombia was linked yesterday for the first time to an
international drug-smuggling case in which his wife has pleaded guilty.

The colonel, James C. Hiett, is expected to plead guilty on April 17
to charges accusing him of failing to advise government officials as
soon as possible that his wife, Laurie Anne Hiett, was engaged in
money laundering, according to court papers filed by an assistant
United States attorney, Lee G. Dunst.

After an investigation by the United States Customs Service, Mrs.
Hiett, 36, admitted in January that she had conspired to smuggle more
than $700,000 worth of heroin out of Bogota last year and had flown to
New York at least twice to pick up payments for the drugs.

Mrs. Hiett said she had hidden the scheme from her husband, who led
all American military activity in the country from July 1998 until
August 1999.

"I never told him what I was doing," Mrs. Hiett said in
court.

A three-month inquiry conducted last year by the Army Criminal
Investigation Division cleared Colonel Hiett, saying he had no prior
knowledge of his wife's crimes. Harvey Perritt, an Army spokesman,
refused to comment yesterday on the colonel's case other than to say
that he is still serving as a training officer at Fort Monroe in Virginia.

Mr. Dunst also refused to comment on Colonel Hiett's expected guilty
plea.

As part of her plea in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, Mrs. Hiett
said she had shipped six brown paper packages of what she thought was
cocaine from Bogota to New York City in a conspiracy that took
advantage of the special mailing privileges at the American Embassy.

The shipments, in fact, contained heroin, chemical tests
determined.

The charges against Colonel Hiett carry a maximum penalty of three
years in prison.

The latest developments come just days after the United States House
of Representatives approved a $1.7 billion plan to help Colombia and
other Andean countries combat drug trafficking.

Colonel Hiett's admission is sure to prove an embarrassment for the
Clinton administration as it pushes for Congressional support.

The colonel's mission in Colombia, a country where American support
for the military is controversial among many average Colombians, was
in itself a sensitive one.

Colonel Hiett was in charge of about 200 American troops that trained
Colombian security forces in counternarcotics operations, which
invariably lead to military engagements with the guerrillas who
control much of the rugged regions of Colombia where drugs are
processed for shipment.