JET-CLEANING EMPLOYEES HELD IN SCHEME TO SEND HEROIN TO MIAMI

(BOGOTA, Colombia) -- Employees of a private company hired to clean
American Airlines jets landing in Cali hatched a smuggling scheme that
may have sent a half-ton of heroin to Miami over two years, law
enforcement authorities said Wednesday.

Detectives in Cali arrested 10 employees of Aercol over the weekend
and charged them with heroin smuggling, authorities said.

The suspects are accused of sending small packets of heroin aboard
American Airlines craft headed for Miami.

Authorities said the smashing of the heroin ring was unrelated to an
investigation announced Wednesday in South Florida that involved the
arrests of 58 employees of American Airlines accused of distributing
cocaine and marijuana.

In the Colombian case, authorities said Aercol employees took
advantage of the freedom they were given over American Airlines jets
that arrive daily in Cali, Colombia's second-largest city.

The Aercol workers usually stashed heroin in the back of the pilot's
seat, said Efrain Marin of the Department of Administrative Security,
Colombia's equivalent of the FBI. Heroin was also hidden in tail
sections and other compartments that needed to be unscrewed to be
opened, he said.

"They knew such good hiding places that sometimes their own gang
members [in Miami] couldn't find it," he said.

A tapped telephone conversation indicated that heroin was once
smuggled aboard an American Airlines craft, only to return to Cali
with the narcotics aboard because gang members couldn't find the
shipment, authorities said.

U.S. drug enforcement agents took part in the investigation, which led
to the arrests of the entire smuggling organization, Marin said.

The criminal band had a slogan -- "Slow but Sure" -- that indicated it
was more interested in sending small quantities of heroin regularly
than making big, risky shipments, he said.

Authorities estimate that the gang sent 1,100 pounds of heroin to
Miami over the past two years, with a street value of $65 million.

Separately, prosecutors announced that they had formally accused six
members of the Colombian air force and two civilians for smuggling
cocaine and heroin aboard a Hercules C-130 cargo plane that landed
last November at Fort Lauderdale's airport.

U.S. authorities discovered 1,467 pounds of cocaine and 33 pounds of
heroin aboard the aircraft.

The case brought shame on the Colombian air force and raised questions
over whether drug traffickers had infiltrated its upper ranks.

Among those heading to trial are cashiered Maj. Gonzalo Alberto
Noguera, the former air force intelligence chief at Bogota's largest
military air base; Maj. Cesar Augusto Delgado, the base operations
chief; and Lt. Juan Ricardo Ruis, who was in charge of foreign trade,
prosecutors said.
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e-mail: timjohnson@herald.com