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 June
2001
OPERATION CREOLE
DEA’s Special
Operations Division (SOD), through its Latin American/Caribbean Section
(OSL) initiated Operation Creole in September 2000 as part of ongoing
efforts to disrupt heroin and cocaine smuggling in the Caribbean. Through
the cooperative efforts of DEA, the U.S. Customs Service (USCS), and Aruba
law enforcement authorities, a trafficking organization using cruise lines
to smuggle illegal narcotics was severely disrupted.
| Drug couriers,
mostly workers on Carnival Cruise Ships, used secret compartments
in the soles of their shoes to smuggle cocaine and heroin into the
United States. |
In September 2000,
USCS officers arrested two individuals with 2.7 kilograms of heroin aboard
a Carnival Cruise Line ship. Information obtained as a result of the arrest
revealed a major trafficking organization, headed by Hernando Rafael Mercado-Ochoa,
operating out of Aruba. In January 2001, personnel from the DEA, USCS,
FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and Aruba Politie Organized Crime
Unit met in San Juan, Puerto Rico to coordinate the investigation, in
part because several of the targets of Operation Creole had been identified
in other ongoing operations of DEA and FBI.
 |
| Smugglers
sometimes use small “bullets” of heroin to transport the
drug into the United States. |
As the operation
continued a number of arrests were made of individuals working aboard
Carnival Cruise Lines. These couriers were smuggling heroin and cocaine
in hollowed-out areas in the soles of their shoes. Based on these arrests
and other investigative leads, Aruba Politie Organized Crime Unit executed
the Aruba takedown of Operation Creole on June 29, 2001. The police arrested
fifteen people, including the head of the organization, Mercado-Ochoa.
Authorities also seized $355,000 U.S. Currency and 2 kilograms of heroin.
The combined efforts
of law enforcement during Operation Creole resulted in 34 arrests and
the seizure of 29.7 kilograms of heroin, 44 kilograms of cocaine, 1 handgun,
and $688,077 in U.S. Currency.
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