IN THE BELLIES OF `MULES,' A KILLER DRUG IS SMUGGLED

Air travelers bring heroin into Newark

[PHOTO CAPTION] Above, U.S. Customs Inspector Frank Reilly checks baggage
at Newark International Airport. Below, heroin is often stored in latex
pellets that are swallowed by smugglers, called `mules,' traveling from
Colombia. Photos by Chris Pedota

A 28-year-old American didn't look like a heroin smuggler when he passed
through Newark International Airport.

"At a distance, this gentleman looked like a yuppie," said Edward J.
Morera, a Newark customs inspector.

But a check of criminal records showed the part-time professional actor, on
a flight with his pregnant wife from her native Colombia, had been arrested
in 1983 for possession of three pounds of marijuana. The man also had new
stitches on his face and odd stains on his clothes.

His stomach and intestines were packed with 980 grams of heroin in 85
thumb-sized latex pellets he had swallowed one by one. Authorities later
learned that in a desperate bid for money, he had agreed to carry drugs,
then was beaten when he tried to change his mind.

People have tried all sorts of ingenious methods to bring heroin into the
country. Of the thousands of smugglers, authorities said, the largest group
- -- 26 percent -- swallow dozens of latex sausages filled with heroin.

Customs officials also have found drugs dissolved in liquor, packed inside
wheelchair tubing, taped onto bodies, inside shoe heels and ice-packs, and
glued under a wig. Only small amounts enter the United States in the mail
or with cargo taken off ships and planes. Sometimes more than 10 pounds of
heroin is found sewn into jacket linings and quilts, or hidden in false
suitcase panels.

Most heroin arrives as it did on that 1996 flight taken by the part-time
actor -- in the stomachs and intestines of people who swallow an average of
two pounds before they hop on a U.S.-bound plane, said John Varrone, the
U.S. Customs Service's special agent in charge of the New York area. Half
the time, the drug is stuffed into the cut-off finger of a rubber glove or
into the bottom of a condom. The rest of the time, heroin has been packed
by machine into latex casings, Morera said.

The smugglers, called "mules," then enter the United States, excrete the
drug pellets and turn them over to wholesalers who clean and sell the drug,
Varrone said.

In the early 1990s, more than 50 percent of America's heroin came from
Nigeria. In 1993 and 1994, U.S. officials stemmed the tide by prohibiting
Air Nigeria flights from Lagos, the capital, from landing at John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York, Varrone said.

Today, 70 percent of America's heroin comes from Colombia, where drug
exports are harder to stop because smugglers hop-scotch between South
American cities to mask their point of origin. One smuggler boarded a plane
in Colombia and flew to Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama before a five-hour
trip to New York, Morera said. And more smugglers are sneaking onto U.S.
soil in Puerto Rico, where they then can travel freely, Varrone said.

Between 5.5 and 6.6 tons of heroin are produced annually in South America,
with most of it bound for the United States. Customs officials nationwide
last year seized only about 1.2 tons, or 2,423 pounds. More than a third of
that -- 914 pounds, or 37.3 percent of the total -- was seized in the New
York area, mostly at Newark and John F. Kennedy.

Customs officials check out all 3.3 million international passengers who
touch down in Newark annually, identifying suspicious travelers based on
names, birth dates, passport information and recent travel patterns
transmitted electronically by foreign governments and 62 commercial
airlines while the plane is in flight. Inspectors scan for further
indications of illegal activity once a computer program flags suspicious
passengers, but officials would not specify what they look for.

"We want to use electronic information to identify passengers with the
greatest risk," said William Brush, chief customs inspector at Newark.
Officials also check passengers' criminal records against local and federal
databases.

Once a suspicious traveler's passport is inspected at the immigration desk
- -- using a grocery-store style scanner on magnetic strips that are on most
nations' passports -- an alarm is radioed to customs agents. Using a
network of 22 cameras and viewing from behind mirrored glass, inspectors
watch as travelers move through the customs hall. They radio a physical
description to floor inspectors, who approach the suspects as they pick up
their luggage and ask questions about their trip.

"That will either confirm our suspicions or negate them," Brush said.

Until about eight years ago, customs officials interviewed every arriving
international passenger and were required to search at least one bag. But
balancing demands for efficiency with higher foreign passenger traffic --
up 30 percent in the past year at Newark -- customs officials say they have
streamlined operations with a goal of getting passengers from bag pickup to
clearing customs within five minutes.

Seizures have increased along with the number of passengers. In 1995, 60
pounds of heroin were seized at Newark. From Oct. 1, 1997 to Aug. 24 of
this year, New York area authorities seized 131 pounds of heroin just from
inside the bodies of 43 passengers.

Although most travelers are unaware of it, Brush said, customs inspectors
do not need warrants to search passengers coming into the country.

Four percent of arriving international travelers at Newark are stopped and
questioned, and only half of those arouse enough suspicion for inspectors
to open bags or conduct pat-downs.

Suspected drug swallowers then are taken to a hospital for X-rays. If drug
pellets show up, their bowel movements are monitored until they excrete
their illicit cargo.

Sometimes smugglers are so packed with heroin that they pass the drug soon
after landing. Some take Valium to calm nerves or anti-diarrhea medication
to delay excretion.

"We had one who didn't go to the bathroom for a week," Assistant Chief
Inspector Stephen N. Greenberg said.

Wholesalers who order heroin send $75,000 to $120,000 per kilo to the
exporter, Morera said. The exporter pays the swallowers up to $20,000 per
kilo -- $12 to $20 per gram. To people who normally earn $600 a month, it's
like winning the lottery, Morera said.

"It's mostly people who are destitute. They have no other means," Morera
said. "These guys aren't the kingpins."

The American actor had run out of money while in Colombia. He carried drugs
in a desperate bid to get home, and later cooperated with authorities for a
reduced sentence. Another carrier was a 20-year-old woman from a well-to-do
upstate New York family. A college student, she was coming from Brazil.
Officials suspect that her family cut her off financially so she carried
drugs as a way to return home. Drug swallowers have ranged in age from 76
to a 13-year-old girl who was paid $2,000.

Mules aren't allowed to touch what they swallow so drug-sniffing dogs won't
smell it on their fingers, Morera said. Usually they are not allowed to see
the pile of 50 to 100 heroin packets they are going to choke down for fear
they will balk at swallowing such huge amounts. They are given the packets
one at a time.

One man, apprehended Aug. 17 at John F. Kennedy on a flight from West
Africa, had ingested 75 heroin sausages weighing a total of 1.93 pounds.
The record goes to a 30-year-old man who flew from Colombia to John F.
Kennedy in 1989 after swallowing 4.6 pounds of cocaine in 156 latex
pellets. The women's record holder is a 34-year-old who traveled from
Colombia to John F. Kennedy in 1991 stuffed with 3.9 pounds of heroin in
101 condoms.

Customs officials say they need more money and more employees to increase
arrests and crimp the current heroin wave. While the number of inspectors
searching baggage has increased nearly tenfold in the past decade -- from
six to 56 in Newark -- international passengers have multiplied by about 30
times in that period, Brush said. Authorities also need greater flexibility
in moving agents around when it appears more drugs are coming into certain
American cities.

Because drug cartels change their routes and have many South American
cities from which they export to the New York area, a complex web of routes
creates a difficult problem compared to the single route from Nigeria to
New York.

Customs officials are working with airlines and law agencies to get more
cooperation on pre-landing passenger checks. Brush said he wants to change
the computer system to highlight suspicious passengers who travel
frequently, but he would not reveal other strategies.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski