02/15/2002 [Crime Trend] Heroin Smuggling
Customs Service inspectors stopped Alejandro Mejia Garcia at Orlando International Airport on Feb. 5 and noticed the unusually stiff clothes that smelled of vinegar and left a trail of white powder. A Colombian laundry used heroin as starch for shirts and blue jeans and hired a smuggler to take the drug-soaked clothes into Florida.
The suspect said he was promised payment by smugglers in Medellin, Colombia. Heroin starching is an old smuggling method that has recently resurfaced in Miami and New York City.
Please be on the lookout for this smuggling technique, and notify fellow law enforcement officers at the airports in your area. Source - U.S. Customs