ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 12, 1997 TAG: 9703120042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A New York man is accused of paying up to $10,000 a trip. Drug destinations included Virginia cities.
A former sailor helped an international drug 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.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials said Lloyd helped them obtain passports and arranged their travel to South America and Europe to obtain cocaine and heroin,
``We're talking about drug dealers deliberately recruiting young women ... at up to $10,000 a trip,'' said Arthur Scalzo, agent in charge of the DEA'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.
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 who was approached about joining the group reported the offer to authorities, Scalzo said.
Prosecutors allege that on Sept. 14, 1996, Lloyd gave an undercover officer about $300, an airplane ticket to Istanbul, Turkey, and instructions to pick up a camera bag and backpack containing 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 federal hearing 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.
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