Pubdate: Wed, 06 Dec 2000
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2000 The Miami Herald
Contact:  One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693
Fax: (305) 376-8950
Website: http://www.herald.com/

BOND SET FOR SON OF COLOMBIAN ANTI-DRUG OFFICIAL

MIAMI -- (AP) -- The teen-age son of a top Colombian anti-drug official must
post $250,000 bond before he can be released on charges he smuggled heroin
into the United States, a judge ruled today.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Palermo said the family of Andres Lafourie
Restrepo will be required to prove the bond money, if raised, did not come
from crime profits, a routine condition in U.S. drug cases.

Restrepo, 19, is charged with conspiracy to import heroin for allegedly
arriving last month at Miami International Airport on a flight from Colombia
with 7.3 pounds of heroin taped to his calves.

Outside court, defense attorney Irwin Lichter, said, ``I've got tremendous
pressures on me not to say anything to the press.''

Restrepo's alleged accomplice, Juan Pablo Mejia, 18, agreed earlier to the
same $250,000 bond requirement.

Restrepo's mother, Maria Restrepo, heads the agency known by its Spanish
acronym PLANTE, which helps create new livelihoods for farmers who agree to
stop growing coca and poppy plants used to make cocaine and heroin.

After her son's arrest, Maria Restrepo pledged to keep her post and urged
young Colombians to seek honest work.

She said her son appeared to have been caught like other ``mules,'' the
slang term for drug carriers who carry hidden stashes of drugs out of
Colombia in return for promised payments in the thousands of dollars.
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