29 PEOPLE INDICTED IN SUSPECTED TEXAS HEROIN RING

A federal grand jury indicted 29 people on drug-trafficking charges in a
move to end a plague of lethal heroin overdoses among young people in the
affluent Dallas suburb of Plano, officials said Wednesday. The suspects
allegedly smuggled black-tar heroin and cocaine into the United States from
Mexico and targeted Plano's youth as a new market for their illicit
products.

Fourteen people in Plano have died of heroin overdoses since June 1995,
almost all teen-agers. Plano's drug problem has become a symbol of the
danger of heroin in wealthy, predominantly white suburban areas.

Police began arresting the heroin ring suspects in early morning raids
Wednesday.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)