OIA TRAVELER'S BACKPACK LINED WITH HEROIN-SOAKED CLOTH

 

 

ORLANDO, Fla. —

A traveler arriving on a flight from Colombia last month was busted with a backpack lined with heroin-soaked cloth at Orlando International Airport, according to federal court records released today.

 

Jaime Mondragon told Customs and Border Protection officers on Aug. 6 he flew in on JetBlue Airways from Bogota to celebrate his twin sons' 18th birthday the next day before returning home, the arrest affidavit stated.

 

But the CBP officers became suspicious after emptying his carry-on backpack and noticing it seemed unusually heavy with a strong chemical odor. A drug sniffing dog detected the smell of narcotics, the report stated.

 

Upon cutting open the stitched lining, officers discovered packages of moist, smelling cloth that was identified as "heroin starching," a smuggling method. Subsequent test determined the cloth contained more than 4 ounces of heroin.

 

Colombia has been the major source of heroin seized in Central Florida since the mid-1990s, when more than 200 teens and adults died of overdoses in greater Orlando.

 

One of the earliest starching cases happened in 2002 when a Panamanian traveler arrived at OIA with a duffel bag of blue jeans with so much heroin "starch" they turned white. Other methods included swallowing heroin pellets, taping it to smugglers' bodies and hiding it clothing and wigs.

 

Mondragon, 41, of Bogota, has been held since his arrest by Orlando police in lieu of $500,000 bail at the Orange County Jail on a state charge of trafficking in more than 28 grams (1 ounce) of heroin. He now is charge with a federal charge of importing more than 100 grams of heroin into the U.S.