U.S. COLONEL'S WIFE IN COLOMBIA SHIPPED COCAINE TO N.Y. USING EMBASSY MAIL

BOGOTA, Colombia - While U.S. Army Col. James Hiett oversaw counternarcotics
operations as the highest-ranking U.S. military officer posted in Colombia,
his wife was allegedly sending packages full of cocaine through the U.S.
government's overseas mail system, prosecutors say.

At least six times in April and May, Laurie Anne Hiett sent small boxes of
cocaine to addresses in New York City, court documents charge. Aghast Army
investigators launched a criminal inquiry after one of the packages was
intercepted by U.S. Customs in Miami on May 23.

Investigators found a smuggling plot that allegedly entangles Laurie Hiett
with the U.S. Embassy chauffeur who used to drive her husband.

"There's stuff in here for a Hollywood movie. It's wild," said one Defense
Department official.

At one point during an interrogation, Laurie Hiett, who is in her mid-30s,
grew "extremely agitated" and blurted out, "I'm afraid they'll kill me,"
court documents say.

Officially, Col. Hiett is off the hook. He has asked for - and received - a
transfer from his post in this cocaine-producing country.

"The investigation did not reveal any evidence that Col. Hiett had any prior
knowledge of the alleged criminal actions of his spouse, nor any
involvement," said Raul Duany, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in
Miami, which oversees U.S. military operations in Latin America.

As head of the U.S. military group in Colombia, Hiett oversaw U.S. Marines
protecting the Embassy, U.S. Special Forces rotating through Colombia for
training and other U.S. troops carrying out counternarcotics missions. At
any given time, about 200 U.S. troops are in Colombia.

Washington is leaning on Colombia to increase its efforts against drug
smuggling and some Colombians chafe at what they view as an American
attitude that U.S. forces are largely incorruptible.

Laurie Hiett was charged Thursday in Brooklyn with conspiracy to distribute
cocaine, Lee Dunst, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New
York, said in a telephone interview. She was freed on $150,000 bail, he said.

If convicted, she could face 10 years to life in prison. Neither Laurie
Hiett nor the Miami lawyer who Dunst said represents her, Paul Lazarus,
could be reached for comment.

The Hietts arrived in Colombia in early 1998. Laurie Hiett grew fond of
northern Bogota's Zona Rosa, a fashionable district of discos, boutiques and
restaurants, and often was there in the company of Jorge Alfonso Ayala, a
Colombian who had worked for 15 years at the Embassy and was assigned to be
her husband's driver, the documents say.

There is no outright ban on U.S. employees visiting the Zona Rosa, but U.S.
employees have been advised to use caution when visiting the district after
a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Frank Moreno, was shot there
in December in an altercation outside a bar.

In the court documents, Hiett told Army investigators that she never knew
what was in the packages she mailed, and that she did so only as a favor to
Ayala, the embassy chauffeur.

Ayala rejected Laurie Hiett's assertion and told Army investigators June 2
that "Hiett abused cocaine."

"Further, Ayala stated that Hiett had asked him on prior occasions to assist
her in obtaining cocaine," a court affidavit says.

Laurie Hiett signed U.S. Customs declarations for all six packages. She
relied on postal facilities within the bunker-like U.S. Embassy,
sidestepping the Colombian postal system. The U.S. system allows diplomats
and their families to send and receive mail from abroad.

Each of the six packages allegedly sent by Laurie Hiett contained 2.6 pounds
of cocaine, worth about $30,000 at wholesale prices, the court affidavit says.

At least one of the packages contained Laurie Hiett's name in the return
address, it says. All the packages were sent to addresses in Manhattan and
Queens.

New York police arrested the recipient of several of the boxes, Hernan
Arcila, at his Queens home May 25, court papers say.