Colonel admits money laundering
By Deirdre
Griswold
New York
A scandal of enormous proportions involving the U.S.
military's "war on drugs" in Colombia is being swept under
the rug, at the very same time that the administration has
asked Congress for $1.7 billion to expand the Pentagon's
operations there.
The U.S. Army colonel formerly in charge of Washington's
entire "anti-drug" operation in Colombia has admitted in
Federal District Court in Brooklyn that he laundered profits
from his wife's drug smuggling.
U.S. Army Col. James Hiett said in court on April 17
before Judge Edward R. Korman that he used thousands of
dollars from heroin smuggling to pay household bills. But
this story, which has not only national but international
dimensions, was tucked away in the Metro section of the April
18 New York Times.
There have been no headlines, no television reports, none
of the publicity that such an explosive story would
merit.
The colonel's wife, Laurie Anne Hiett, admitted in January
that she had conspired to smuggle more than $700,000 worth of
heroin out of Bogota last year and had flown to New York at
least twice to pick up payments for the drugs, reported Alan
Feuer in the April 4 New York Times. Some of the shipments
had been mailed from the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.
The colonel claimed he knew nothing about it and was
cleared by the Army Criminal Investigation Division after a
three-month "inquiry."
But evidence was produced by the U.S. Customs Service that
finally forced the colonel to admit to money laundering. He
is to be sentenced June 23 and can receive a prison term of
between 12 and 18 months.
Meanwhile, Clinton's "drug czar," Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
continues to get plenty of television time for his spurious
claims that the U.S. troops now training and equipping the
Colombian Army are only there to combat drug trafficking.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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