Son of Colombian Anti-Drug Official Held in Smuggling of Heroin to U.S.
The 19-year-old son of a top Colombian anti-narcotics official was arrested in Miami this week for allegedly smuggling heroin into the United States, officials said Friday.
U.S. agents arrested Andres Lafourie Restrepo at Miami International Airport on Wednesday with 8 pounds of heroin in 240 pellets taped to his legs, a U.S. Customs Service statement said.
He was arrested along with Juan Pablo Mejia, 18, also of Colombia, who had 7 1/2 pounds of heroin, the statement said.
Restrepo, who had arrived from Cartagena, Colombia, on national air carrier Avianca, was being held at a federal detention center in Miami, customs spokesman Zach Mann said.
His mother, Maria, heads the government program that provides economic alternatives to farmers who grow the coca and poppy plants used to make cocaine and heroin.
The agency, known as Plante, is slated to receive tens of millions of dollars as part of a $1.3-billion anti-narcotics aid package from the United States.
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