Drip-Dry Heroin

In the world of money, drugs, crooks and cops, the basic theme is always the same, but favored methods of breaking the law do tend to change.

Arrests announced Wednesday by the U.S. and Colombia threw a sharp spotlight on the latest wrinkle in the heroin trade.

U.S. and Colombian authorities have charged 25 people with drug conspiracy for allegedly smuggling in clothes soaked in liquid heroin.

Authorities say up to 20 kilograms of heroin, with a street value of $3 million, was brought into the United States every month since October 2001.

James Comey, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, says heroin has made a big comeback in the U.S. drug scene, with Colombian producers taking over the east coast market from southeast and southwest Asia.

Comey called the drug ring smashed by the arrests "one of the most powerful and most dominant in the world." The arrests were the result of a six-month joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Colombian National Police.

The indictment charges that drugs were allegedly soaked into garments or hidden in luggage with false compartments. Couriers, including U.S. defendants, then smuggled the heroin through South and Central America for distribution in New York, Miami, Houston, Philadelphia and Boston, according to the indictment.

One courier was caught May 29 smuggling 55 pounds of heroin-soaked clothing into Houston, the indictment added.

The smugglers allegedly used a chemical to reduce the heroin to liquid form and dipped the clothes in the fluid. To extract the drug, the clothes were later soaked in another liquid chemical, which evaporated and left the narcotics.

The heroin operation was allegedly based in Pereira, Colombia, where the drugs were bought.