So sensitive is this case in Colombia that the state prosecutor who would normally handle such a case has handed the investigation to a "faceless" court - judges whose names are not revealed for fear of reprisals from hired killers. 

THE TIMES [London]
Monday, 1 November 1999
 

The colonel, his wife, the chauffeur and cocaine 

BOGOTA -- Soon after taking up his post at the American Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, US Army Colonel James Hiett stopped taking his feisty wife to diplomatic soirees.

Life in those cloistered circles was not tailored to the "wild ways" of Laurie Anne Hiett, 36, who gained a reputation for making a spectacle of herself at cocktail parties hosted by US diplomats in their guarded maisonettes.

"She was initially invited to all the social functions. But then she would say the damndest things, so the colonel stopped taking her," recalls a retired American diplomat. So it came as no surprise to people when she was suspected of being embroiled in a drug-smuggling plot earlier this year which has rocked the American Embassy in Bogota.

Laurie Anne liked to have fun. Her cacophonic giggle, which drowned polite chit-chat at parties, drew disapproving glances. Guests frowned when she danced provocatively to salsa tunes rather than join conversations with other embassy wives about Bogota's horrendous traffic jams or where to buy the best American cheesecake. During one dinner party, attended by high-society Colombians, soap opera stars and embassy officials, she remarked what fun it would be if guests were to get high on cocaine. "She was always a livewire and acted like a loose cannon," recalls the retired diplomat.

Rumour had it that Colonel Hiett was embarrassed by his wife because her "wired" antics were seen as a sign that she might have a cocaine habit. "He would blush when her behaviour suggested, rightly or wrongly, that she wanted to do a line of coke in the toilet at parties," says another former US Embassy official.

A businessman who had the Hietts to dinner on several occasions discovered that they slept in separate beds and recalls how Laurie Anne was "always going out with 'crazy' people from the embassy". Her fondness for clingy leopardskin blouses and miniskirts didn't help either. Such attire clashed with the frilly taffeta and rather more ample gowns that are de rigueur among embassy wives.

Not surprisingly, Laurie Anne Hiett was ostracised by this closed community. Instead of attending coffee mornings and luncheons at a creperie overlooking the fashionable gardens of Parque 93, where diplomats' spouses met to gossip, she forged a relationship with her husband's Colombian chauffeur, often travelling to no-go areas of the city.

She became a regular at the bars and nightclubs of Bogota's trendy Zona Rosa (Red Zone) district, which diplomats are advised to avoid because of its thriving cocaine trade. She also ventured into the "underground" nightclub scene despite a warning from the US Embassy to avoid the area after an agent from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Frank Moreno, was shot there in December last year after a row outside a disco.

But ignoring all the warnings, she even spent weekends, accompanied by her driver, in the Andean hill town of Chia, 70 miles outside Bogota. The spa resort is a haven for late-night drinkers and a hideout for those on a cocaine-sniffing binge. There have been reports of guerrilla kidnappings on the mountain road, which is another reason why diplomats are told to avoid the area. "But Laurie Anne did not like to follow the rules," says a former embassy secretary.

In civil-war-torn Colombia, diplomats do not stray far from the protective walls of the embassy, their bulletproof limousines or their well-guarded homes. Bogota is one of the most violent cities in South America and the embassy is the most protected US mission there. A moat surrounds the compound. "We are always under siege here, so we stay behind closed doors," said an official who, like all the others, refused to be named.

But inside this giant bunker a bizarre drug-trafficking scandal - the most embarrassing in the US's 20-year involvement in Colombia's narcotics war - was revealed after a three-month investigation, which led to Laurie Anne Hiett's arrest in New York.

A former diplomat quoted in the American press said "the weirdest things happen in that embassy". Another added: "Much of the staff is made up of non-Foreign Service officers, and that lends itself to a crazy atmosphere down there." Another gave warning: "There is enough stuff down there for a Hollywood movie."

When a US Customs official randomly unwrapped a parcel at a Miami airport postal depot on May 24 - which Mrs Hiett had allegedly posted - he did not expect to open Pandora's box. Only rarely are officers sent to riffle through diplomatic post. But on this day the official's sniffer dog lingered around a parcel sent from the Bogota embassy.

Despite an unwritten rule to let diplomatic post pass unchecked, this one was too suspicious. Instead of the sweets, toys and Colombian coffee that a customs declaration said it contained, it was packed with nearly 3lb of top-quality cocaine. And, it is alleged, Mrs Hiett had written the false customs declaration and put her name and signature on the remittance slips. Ironically, the find came just days after Colonel Hiett was nominated to lead 200 US troops at the anti-narcotics bases of Tres Esquinas and Tolemaida, in Colombia's druginfested southern jungles.

A further six parcels were then traced, all containing between 2 and 3lb of cocaine with a street value of some Pounds 150,000. They were allegedly sent by Mrs Hiett to apartments in New York's Queens and Manhattan districts. The New York Police, US Customs agents and the Army's Criminal Division joined forces to investigate the case. Meanwhile, a separate undercover military investigation cleared Colonel Hiett of involvement in the drug-smuggling charges against his wife. He was speedily transferred out of Colombia to an undisclosed posting.

The trail following his wife does indeed have all the ingredients for a blockbuster movie. That first parcel found in Miami was rewrapped and sent to its intended destination in Jackson Heights, New York. A postman rang the doorbell, watched by detectives in neighbouring buildings. The man who answered said the recipient lived in the basement flat but would be out for another four hours.

When the postman returned to the apartment, a woman claimed she had been authorised to accept the package and signed for it. Thirty minutes later her brother was seen by detectives trying to jump over a wall with the parcel under his arm. He ran into a police barricade and was arrested. Meanwhile, other detectives raided the basement, where they detained the sister and found 500g of cocaine and more than $ 13,000 in a suitcase. One suspect confessed that he had received several parcels, allegedly sent by Laurie Anne Hiett from Colombia - and that he had been paid $ 1,500 for sending each one to various addresses in Queens.

Simultaneously, the US Army's Division of Criminal Investigations began a scrupulous search for more packages arriving from Bogota via the diplomatic mail system. After the Brooklyn Heights raid, investigators traced another parcel, allegedly sent with Mrs Hiett's name on it, to a New York resident who has turned witness in the inquiry. Criminal investigation sheets say the witness confessed to sending the parcel to Manhattan.

Detectives were led to a private post office, where they found another parcel containing 2.7lb of cocaine. Again it was accompanied by a customs declaration apparently signed by Mrs Hiett, which falsely claimed to contain Colombian artefacts, books and a candle.

Mrs Hiett denied all charges and stressed that she had sent the parcels for her husband's Colombian chauffeur without knowing the contents. In her statements, she alleged that the chauffeur had asked her to send the packages to a friend in the US; that he had received one package from a couple who arrived at the embassy car park in a taxi; and that she had just wrapped it up and sent it on as asked.

But the chauffeur alleged that Mrs Hiett was a cocaine addict who had begged him on numerous occasions to find a supplier who would deliver cocaine to the embassy. In his statement to investigators, he claimed that he had taken his boss's wife to nightclubs in Zona Rosa on several occasions to buy cocaine.

Behind one bar in the district - where barmen say they remember the "blonde" and her moustached driver - you can buy a gram of cocaine for less than $ 10 over the counter.

Mrs Hiett's allegations were regarded with suspicion since the false customs declarations on all the packages were apparently in her handwriting, backed by her signature. In a second interview, according to the US Army investigators' report sheet, she became very nervous, saying "I am afraid they will kill me", presumably referring to the drug traffickers she accused her driver of knowing. She is said to have stormed out of the interrogation room to run into her husband's office in "hysterics".

The driver, meanwhile, absconded soon after being questioned and has been on the run since giving his statement.

So sensitive is this case in Colombia that the state prosecutor who would normally handle such a case has handed the investigation to a "faceless" court - judges whose names are not revealed for fear of reprisals from hired killers.

Early in August Mrs Hiett flew to New York and handed herself over to US authorities, pleading innocent to all drug-trafficking charges. She attended a hearing at a Federal Court in Brooklyn on August 5, where she was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. According to Lee Dunst, an Assistant US Attorney, Mrs Hiett was freed on a $ 150,000 bail to await trial and, if found guilty, she could face a 10-year prison sentence.

While embassy officials in Bogota have tried to brush off her case as a one off incident, investigators say there are "other suspects" at the mission who are alleged to have collaborated in a drug-trafficking ring. US and Colombian officials said that between six and eight embassy employees are also being investigated for using the diplomatic postal system to send cocaine. There are no pictures of Mrs Hiett, her whereabouts are unknown and her lawyer declined to comment on the case. 
 

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