Pubdate: Fri, 08 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/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald

SON OF COLOMBIAN ANTI-DRUG OFFICIAL PLEADS INNOCENT TO SMUGGLING

MIAMI -- (AP) -- The teen-age son of a top Colombian anti-drug 
official pleaded innocent today to heroin smuggling charges that 
carry a possible life prison sentence.

Andres Lafourie Restrepo, 19, remains held on $250,000 on a 
four-count indictment charging him with heroin smuggling, possession 
and conspiracy. No trial date has been scheduled.

Restrepo allegedly arrived last month at Miami International Airport 
on a flight from Colombia with 7.3 pounds of heroin taped to his 
calves.

Restrepo's co-defendant, Juan Pablo Mejia, 18, faces the same charges 
and bond requirements.

Restrepo's mother, Maria Restrepo, heads the Colombian 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.

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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