February 2, 2006 – A gang of sicko Colombian drug pushers surgically implanted packets of liquid heroin into adorable puppies in an evil plot to smuggle millions of dollars worth of drugs into the United States, authorities revealed yesterday.
“I think it’s outrageous and heinous that they’d use small, innocent puppies in this way,” said New York City DEA chief John Gilbride as he announced the arrests of 22 Colombians implicated in the canine caper.
“It just demonstrates what lengths drug dealers will go to get drugs into the country.”
An unknown number of drug-laden dogs were flown on commercial flights from Colombia to New York so the heroin, derived from poppies, could be distributed throughout the East Coast, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The agency suspects the puppies were heartlessly killed and thrown out with the garbage when the heroin was extracted from their bodies.
DEA agents in Colombia were tipped off in 2004 by “a call in regards to cruelty to animals” at a farm in the city of Medellin, according to the agency.
A subsequent raid on that farm rescued 10 purebred puppies, including Labrador retrievers, authorities said.
Six of those desperate dogs had had a total of three kilos of heroin stitched into their bellies by a local vet. Three of those poor pooches later died from infections after the drugs were removed. Gilbride said the surviving dogs are “alive and well.”
They are “living happily with families in Colombia,” a DEA spokeswoman said.
The Drug Enforcement Agency doggedly investigated the Medellin-based drug-dealing ring for two years before putting the bite on it.
The probe revealed an operation that smuggled more than 20 kilos or heroin — worth $20 million — into the United States by means that included not only the puppy couriers, but also human “mules” who voluntarily swallowed condoms or latex gloves filled with drugs.
Heroin also was hidden in body creams and aerosol cans, pressed into bead shapes and sewn into purses and luggage.
Susan Richmond, co-executive director of the Humane Society of New York, was shocked when told of the use of puppies by the drug ring.
“To hear things like this are always horrifying,” Richmond said. “It’s a terrible case of animal abuse. Animals feel and suffer, and to inflict intentional pain in an effort to make a profit is an unspeakable cruelty.”
She said she hopes “the courts would look at [the case] very seriously, and protect these animals from these people.”
But Richmond was happy he sick scam was uncovered by authorities: “Thank God it was, because now the dogs can be saved.”
So far, the feds have seized 14 separate shipments of heroin totaling 24 kilograms. Eighteen search warrants related to the probe were executed in six Colombian cities yesterday.
Animals have been used as unwitting smugglers before.
In December 1994, an English sheepdog was stopped at Kennedy Airport after a flight from Colombia and found to have 10 cocaine-filled balloons implanted into its abdomen.
In June 2003, a federal Fish and Wildlife inspector discovered a boa constrictor shipped from Colombia had a large bulge in its body, which turned out to be two condoms filled with eight ounces of cocaine. A subsequent search uncovered 223 snakes with a total of 80 pounds of cocaine jammed into their bodies.
In May 1993, wildlife inspectors first broke a case that involved a trick they had first heard of almost a decade earlier. Agents discovered that shipments of tropical fish had been double-bagged — one bag wrapped around a fish, and another bag, containing liquid cocaine, was wrapped around that bag.
Months later, DEA agents found boxes of liquid fish swimming in dyed water that contained liquid cocaine.
Source - NY Post
Sick, twisted, heartless, but in it’s own evil way, clever. Discuss.
