DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997               TAG: 9703110329

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                      LENGTH:   59 lines

NEWPORT NEWS MAN ACCUSED IN DRUG RING ARRESTS THE FORMER SAILOR HELPED RECRUIT HOUSEWIVES AS COURIERS FOR INTERNATIONAL SMUGGLING.

A former sailor helped an international drug smuggling ring recruit middle-class housewives from New York to carry heroin, cocaine and marijuana into the United States, federal authorities said.

Lonnie Lee Lloyd of Newport News was arrested with three Long Island men last fall and charged with conspiracy to import and distribute heroin. Federal authorities kept the arrest a secret until February.

The women, from Long Island, N.Y., were selected because they did not fit the profile of drug couriers and could slip past customs and immigration officials without arousing suspicion.

Lloyd helped the women obtain passports and arranged their travel to South America and Europe to obtain cocaine and heroin, DEA officials said.

``We're talking about drug dealers deliberately recruiting young women . . Enforcement Administration's Long Island office.

``The uniqueness of it is here you have a band of housewives, regardless of their social stature, involved in sophisticated drug-smuggling,'' Scalzo said.

Some of the heroin was intended for distribution in Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Scalzo said. Details came to light in a complaint a federal prosecutor filed last month in U.S. District Court on Long Island.

Federal officials say a group of former sailors who met in Italy started the smuggling ring about six years ago. The investigation began about two years ago when a Long Island woman was approached about joining the group. Instead, she reported the offer to authorities, Scalzo said.

Couriers picked up cocaine in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Quito, Ecuador, delivered it to Rome, Istanbul, Turkey, and Bucharest, Romania, and returned to the United States with heroin.

``In Europe, they want cocaine. In the United States, the product of choice is heroin,'' said Suffolk County Detective Brian Laskowski.

Prosecutors allege that on Sept. 14, 1996, Lloyd gave an undercover officer about $300, an airplane ticket to Istanbul, and instructions to pick up a camera bag and backpack containing 3.6 kilograms - almost eight pounds - of heroin.

Lloyd had planned to meet the courier when she returned, but DEA agents from Norfolk arrested him in September before he left Newport News and charged them with conspiracy to import and distribute heroin.

Lloyd pleaded innocent to the conspiracy charges during a hearing in federal court Oct. 22, 1996, a U.S. district court clerk said. Lloyd has been a federal prisoner in New York City since the arrest. No trial date has been set.

The investigation has identified nearly 120 people in the smuggling scheme in addition to those already arrested, Scalzo said. At least four suspected couriers have been arrested since last year. A fifth was arrested in Italy after authorities caught her with multiple kilograms of cocaine at the Rome airport.

Lloyd could get up to a life without parole sentence if convicted. KEYWORDS: DRUG ARREST DRUG RING

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