News
Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 11, 1996
U.S.
Law Enforcement Dismantles International Heroin Smuggling Ring Run Predominantly
by Nigerian Women
Arrests Made in Bangkok,
Pakistan, Chicago, New York, Detroit
Federal, state and
local law enforcement officials today began executing search warrants
and arresting members of an alleged heroin smuggling and distribution
ring run predominantly by Nigerian women, dismantling a network that stretched
from the opium fields of Southeast Asia to the streets of America. The
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force operation, code-named "Global
Sea," disrupted the Nigerian-run narcotics network and relied on
the unprecedented cooperation of law enforcement in Thailand, France and
Great Britain.
Since 1995, Global
Sea investigators have seized more than $26 million in heroin and charged
44 individuals with drug-related offenses in the U.S. and abroad, including
those made public today. Thirty one of the individuals were charged in
documents made public today in Chicago and Boston. Thirty four of the
defendants were arrested this morning in Bangkok, Chicago, New York, Detroit
and Pakistan. Two of the defendants charged today were arrested in June
in Paris. The 13 others previously charged have been arrested in connection
with the Chicago case since May 1995 in Texas, New Mexico, Thailand, Switzerland,
Mexico and the Netherlands.
"The message
is clear--don't bring drugs into this country and sell them on our streets,
especially to our children," said Attorney General Janet Reno. "If
you do, we will find you, arrest you and prosecute you."
In August 1995, the
Drug Enforcement Agency and the Customs Service, working together in Milwaukee
with the Attorney's Office, conducted an investigation involving undercover
buys of one ounce of heroin. Investigators were able to identify a telephone
number in Chicago used by traffickers. In February, investigators set
up the first series of court-authorized wiretaps in Chicago that intercepted
more than 25,000 telephone calls.
To date, approximately
55.5 kilograms of heroin have been seized in connection with the operation.
Authorities said the heroin has a wholesale value of between $150,000
and $200,000 a kilogram and a retail value of more than $500,000 per kilo--a
total retail value of more than $26 million. The seized heroin in this
case was, on average, approximately 80 percent pure. While markets such
as Boston report street level sales at that purity level, other areas
report street purity levels as low as three percent.
According to allegations
in the complaints filed in Chicago, the network sought to import multi-kilogram
quantities of heroin from spots in Thailand and Cambodia through international
transit routes used by couriers.
Couriers allegedly
traveled to Thailand to pick up heroin and were joined by "controllers"--individuals
who accompanied them to ensure that they reached their destination. Then
they took flights through Europe to Guatemala, and, from there, made their
way through Mexico and across the U.S. border. According to the complaint,
they then transported the heroin from Texas to Chicago, where it was re-sold
in 100 gram quantities. The cash receipts were hand-carried or wire transferred
back to Southeast Asia.
"This investigation
underscores the seamless continuum of international organized crime,"
said Thomas A. Constantine, Administrator of the DEA. "Today's arrests
immobilized an important international Nigerian syndicate, based in Bangkok,
which smuggled heroin through Europe and Mexico and distributed it to
street gangs in the Midwest. It also demonstrates that Nigerian criminal
organizations are no longer just couriers but have developed into major
heroin traffickers in their own right."
Among those charged
were key conspiracy figures Musiliu Balogun and Anthony Smith. Smith was
arrested today in Bangkok. Musiliu Balogun remains at large. Other key
figures charged in Chicago complaint were Kafayat Adedolapo Windokun and
Oluwaseun Balogun. Windokun was arrested in Chicago after arriving on
a flight from London earlier this week. A key figure on the distribution
end, Jumoke Kafayat Majekodunmi, a Nigerian woman, was arrested today
in Chicago.
Musiliu Balogun,
also known as "Olopa" and its English equivalent, "The
Policeman," and Smith, also known as "Baba Cambo," were
identified in the Chicago complaint as the suppliers of the heroin in
Thailand and Cambodia. Majekodunmi, also known as "Kafi," who
owns a women's clothing boutique in Chicago that allegedly was used in
the heroin trafficking business, was identified in the complaint as the
key distributor of the heroin in the United States.
According to charges,
Kafi spoke with co-conspirators about the loss of $150,000 in heroin proceeds
from luggage in Singapore and the arrest of two British couriers. The
two were arrested in Paris when authorities seized four kilograms of heroin
that was destined for Kafi.
Other defendants
are charged with:
Assisting Kafi
in wire transferring drug money overseas,
Making calls and
taking messages on her behalf and
Distributing heroin;
Selling heroin
to other heroin dealers and transporting purchase money to suppliers in
Thailand; and,
Smuggling heroin
across international borders.
Treasury Undersecretary
for Enforcement Raymond Kelly said, "These drug dealers went to great
lengths to smuggle drugs into this country. We went even further."
In Boston, an indictment
was unsealed today charging five individuals--two Chicago-based couriers
and three of their sources in Thailand--with conspiring to import heroin.
All five have been arrested. The two couriers charged are Ade Odoffin,
also known as Tony, and a John Doe 3, known as Kevin Reed. The Thailand
sources charged are Albertine Kilumdu, also known as Tina, John Doe 1,
known as Ellis Ola Giwa, and John Doe 2.
This is the third
wave of prosecutions in Boston of a heroin distribution organization as
a whole--from the sources of the heroin to the couriers who imported the
narcotics.
This prosecution
is significant because it marks an unprecedented level of international
law enforcement cooperation. For the first time ever, in the Boston case,
Royal Thai Police allowed U.S. law enforcement authorities to transport
drugs out of Thailand to assist an ongoing international investigation.
In the Boston case,
an undercover DEA agent posed as an international courier for the Laverne
Cotton-Diaby organization- the Boston-based leader of the conspiracy.
Cotton-Diaby's Thailand-based sources provided the undercover agent with
about five kilograms of heroin for transport to the United States. The
heroin was transported through secure law enforcement channels to Boston.
At the direction of Cotton-Diaby's Thailand sources, the heroin was delivered
to a courier who is associated with the Chicago-based Nigerian heroin
organization. Ade Odoffin delivered $82,000 to an undercover DEA agent
for the heroin, which was recovered by law enforcement after the exchange."
This is a sterling
example of drug law enforcement work at its best," said George Weise,
Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service. "I applaud the work of
the many men and women whose skill and dedication have lead to this unprecedented
effort."
To date, 21 individuals
have been charged in the Boston prosecution, including two who were employed
as Boston police officers during the period of the heroin importing conspiracy.
Attorney General
Reno hailed the coordinated efforts by the U.S. Attorney's Offices in
Chicago and Boston, the Department's Criminal Division, the DEA, the FBI,
the U.S. Customs Service, the INS, the Secret Service, and at least 10
state and local police agencies in the Chicago, Boston and Milwaukee areas.
Reno also praised
the Royal Thai Police/Nana Drug Enforcement Unit and law enforcement authorities
in England, France, the Netherlands, and Singapore for their efforts.
She also commended prosecutors in U.S. Attorneys offices in: the Eastern
District of Wisconsin, the Southern District of Texas, the Southern and
Eastern Districts of New York, the Eastern District of Michigan, the District
of New Mexico, and the District of Minnesota.
The indictment and
complaints contain only charges and are not evidence of guilt. The defendants
are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government
has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
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