5 INDICTED IN ALLEGED COCAINE TRAFFICKING THROUGH LOGAN

For the second time since 1995, travelers arriving from Jamaica have
been arrested at Logan Airport and charged with smuggling liquid
cocaine into the United States in liquor bottles.

Five people, including three from East Falmouth, have been indicted in
federal court, charged by US Customs agents with bringing cocaine
dissolved in wine and brandy bottles into the country.

Customs agents discovered the dissolved cocaine during an inspection
of passengers arriving on a flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica on Jan.
31. According to the Customs Service, a passenger identified as
Samantha Whitney, 19, of Sandwich, was carrying six bottles containing
liquid cocaine.

Four of the bottles were marked ''Stone Original Green Ginger Wine''
and two others were marked ''Wray V. Nephew Jamaica Brandy.''

Customs agents say Whitney was recruited by Ibrahiem Smith, 47, and
his wife, Precious Noble-Smith, 30, of East Falmouth. The ring was
allegedly headed by Hugh Francis O'Neil Barnes, 39, of the Bronx, N.Y.
According to the alleged scheme, the smuggled cocaine was headed to
Bermuda.

Jana Demeo, 30, of East Falmouth, was charged with carrying dissolved
cocaine into the country following a trip to Jamaica in
mid-January.

The Smiths allegedly recruited couriers to make the trip to Jamaica,
paying all their expenses. After clearing Customs at Logan, couriers
would be driven to the Smiths' home, where the dissolved cocaine would
allegedly be stored until it could be transported to Bermuda. A search
of the Smiths' home by Customs agents allegedly turned up three more
bottles of the dissolved cocaine.

On Feb. 2, an undercover Customs agent, along with an undercover agent
from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, posing as drug couriers,
arrested the intended recipients of the cocaine in Bermuda.

According to Customs officials, the ring had been been smuggling
dissolved cocaine through Miami and Boston since last November.

In 1995, seven people were indicted for smuggling at least 47 bottles
of liquid cocaine into Boston from Jamaica. Each bottle contained
about one pound of 100 percent pure liquid cocaine. Joseph B. Bey Jr.,
of South Dennis, who recruited at least a dozen couriers, was
convicted in federal court and sentenced to 27 years in prison last
March.

In recent years, Customs has seen liquid cocaine hidden in shampoo
bottles, hair spray and baby formula.

In order to separate out the cocaine, the liquid is heated in a pan or
on a cookie sheet until the liquid evaporates, leaving a sticky
residue. The residue is then dried to form crack cocaine.