Customs officers seize 10 pounds of heroin at airport

Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 by Crystal Owens

A Pennsylvania man was arrested Dec. 17 after authorities said he tried to smuggle nearly 10 pounds of heroin into Washington-Dulles International Airport.

Customs and Border Protection officers took Elias Casiano, 29, of Hazleton, into custody after he reportedly tried to hide the drugs in the lining of sporting pants.

The seized heroin is worth about $315,000, officers said.

Casiano was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations agents. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia is prosecuting the case.

After arriving on a flight from Bolivia on Dec. 17, Casiano was referred to a secondary inspection.

It was there that customs’ officers discovered 27 plastic-wrapped packages of a brown, powdery substance that field-tested positive for heroin.

The heroin, which weighed a combined 4,459 grams, or a little more than 9 pounds, 13 ounces, was allegedly concealed inside stitched inner linings of four pairs of sporting pants and two pairs of sports shorts, and also wrapped inside a sports team banner.

“Customs and Border Protection officers take very seriously our mission to intercept illicit narcotics at our nation’s borders before the deadly poison can harm our families, friends or neighbors,” said Christopher Hess, CBP Port Director for the Port of Washington in a statement. “Any day that we can remove 12 pounds of dangerous narcotics from circulation is a good day.”

“Public safety is one of ICE’s major priorities and we will continue working closely with CBP and our federal partners to stop drug smuggling operations that use our airports to bring their illicit products into the U.S.,” said ICE HSI special agent in charge of the Washington field office John P. Torres in a statement.

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