Pubdate: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 Source: Auburn Journal(CA) Contact: 1999 Associated Press Website: http://www.auburnjournal.com/ COCAINE CHARGES FOR COMMANDER'S WIFE WASHINGTON (AP) _ The wife of an Army colonel who oversaw the U.S. military's counternarcotics operations in Colombia faces charges of shipping cocaine to the United States, U.S. officials said. Laurie Hiett, wife of Army Col. James Hiett, was charged in June with conspiracy to distribute narcotics after the U.S. Customs Service found parcels containing cocaine, including one package in New York that carried Mrs. Hiett's name as its return address, the officials said Thursday. A warrant for her arrest has been issued by the U.S. Eastern District Court in New York, according to Navy Lt. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami. James Hiett was U.S. military group commander at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota at the time. In that job, he was in charge of all U.S. military activities in Colombia, including counterdrug operations, according to Col. Ron Williams, a Southern Command spokesman. Williams said Hiett requested to be removed from the post after the allegations arose and his transfer is pending. An investigation by the Army Criminal Investigation Division in Panama found "no prior knowledge" by Hiett of cocaine shipments to the United States involving his wife, Williams said. The investigation cleared Hiett of any involvement in criminal activity, he added. Williams referred a reporter to the New York prosecutor's office for information about Mrs. Hiett. The Village Voice newspaper reported on its Internet Web site Thursday that a search warrant application said Mrs. Hiett admitted to federal investigators she had mailed six packages for "her husband's chauffeur," but claimed that she did not know the contents of the parcels. On May 23, according to the Village Voice, one of those parcels was searched by U.S. Customs agents in Miami and was found to contain 2.7 pounds of cocaine. Later a second parcel was intercepted in New York and also found to contain cocaine. The first package carried Mrs. Hiett's name as its return address and was mailed from Bogota, the newspaper reported. Colombia ranks third on the list of U.S. aid recipients with $289 million earmarked for counterdrug activity this year. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug control chief, said recently an additional $1 billion was needed because current efforts were falling short. He said the situation had reached "emergency" proportions. The drug war also is costing the United States in other ways: Five U.S. soldiers were killed two weeks ago when their U.S. Army spy plane crashed into a Colombian mountainside while on a counternarcotics mission. - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto