U.S. Leads Sweep of Global Heroin Smuggling Ring

A coordinated international sweep, led by U.S. law enforcement officials, has shut down a sophisticated Nigerian-run heroin smuggling ring responsible for shipping narcotics worth millions of dollars from southeast Asia to American streets, U.S. officials announced Friday.

Working with police in Thailand, the Netherlands, France, Singapore and Britain, U.S. officials leveled a variety of drug charges against 44 people, including 34 arrested in Chicago, New York, Detroit and two foreign countries--Thailand and Pakistan.

“The message is clear--don’t bring drugs into this country and sell them on our streets, especially to our children,” Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said. “If you do, we will find you, arrest you and prosecute you.”

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Most of those arrested were Nigerians, representing drug traffickers at all levels of the operation, from kingpins based in Thailand to international couriers operating in Europe to street dealers in U.S. cities, officials said. They said that the only Americans involved were low-level couriers.

The yearlong investigation also resulted in seizure of 122 pounds of heroin, which officials said had a street value of more than $26 million. Officials said the heroin was, on average, 80% pure.

Thomas A. Constantine, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said at a news conference that the international crackdown “immobilized an important international Nigerian syndicate, based in Bangkok, which smuggled heroin through Europe and Mexico and distributed it to street gangs in the Midwest.”

According to documents filed in Chicago, law enforcement officials alleged that the Nigerian drug dealers sent couriers throughout Thailand and Cambodia to procure the drug. The narcotics were then carried on flights through Europe to Guatemala, and over land through Mexico to cross the U.S. border into Texas, officials said.

From there, the heroin was transported to Chicago, where it was sold in 100-gram packages and the money was hand-delivered or wired back to Southeast Asia.

Among those charged in the operation, code named “Global Sea,” were Anthony Smith and Musiliu Balogun, who were cited by federal officials in a complaint filed in Chicago as the central heroin suppliers in Thailand and Cambodia. Smith, known as “Baba Cambo,” was arrested Friday in Bangkok; Balogun, nicknamed “Olopa” (which means “the policeman”) has not been caught.

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Another important figure arrested Friday was Jumoke Kafayat Majekodunmi, a Nigerian woman who owns a women’s clothing boutique in Chicago. Officials said Majekodunmi’s store served as “the key distributor of the heroin” in the United States.

Constantine said that the Nigerian ring was notable for involving women in leading roles. Fifteen of those charged Friday were women.

Reno praised the international cooperation and singled out the Royal Thai Police and its Nana Drug Enforcement Unit.

The joint operation marked the first time that Thai officials have allowed U.S. law enforcement officials wide latitude to track drug traffickers in their country, officials said.

Law enforcement authorities said that they were alerted to the Nigerian connection after undercover policemen purchased an ounce of heroin in Milwaukee in August 1995. That purchase led to a Chicago telephone number used by the drug traffickers and allowed federal officials to set up wiretaps.