Heroin

Two Rhode Island men have pleaded guilty in federal court to participating in a heroin trafficking plot. Federal prosecutors said Friday that police found heroin and cash when they searched the homes and cars of 23-year-old Amauris Luciano and 25-year-old Jose Muriel earlier this year. Prosecutors say police launched an investigation after learning Muriel was trafficking heroin from his Providence apartment. Both men were arrested in February. Detectives also seized a .25-caliber handgun and ammunition from Luciano's home.

ST. LOUIS - With heroin becoming cheaper than a six-pack of beer and as easy to obtain as pot, police and prosecutors are turning to more aggressive tactics against the drug, dusting off little-used laws to seek murder charges against suspected dealers and provide for longer prison sentences. Angry suburban parents are joining the effort, too. They have organized antidrug rallies and founded organizations to spread the word about heroin in affluent areas where it is usually considered a distant, unlikely threat.

NEW YORK -- A Taliban-linked drug lord who allegedly sought to poison US streets with millions of dollars of heroin in a deadly "American jihad" has become the first person extradited from Afghanistan to face federal charges, officials said yesterday. Haji Baz Mohammad, one of the world's "most wanted, most powerful, and most dangerous" drug kingpins, had helped finance the Taliban by selling opium since 1990, US Drug Enforcement Administrator Karen Tandy said. "In return, the Taliban protected Mohammad's crops, his heroin labs, his drug transportation labs, and his...

A leader of an international heroin smuggling ring that ran large amounts of drugs from Ghana through Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia is facing at least 10 years in prison. Sixty-two-year-old Edward Macauley was arrested in his home country of Ghana last year and extradited to Virginia to face federal charges. He pleaded guilty in January and is being sentenced at U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Friday. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years. Prosecutors are seeking 14 years.

PROVIDENCE -- A federal grand jury indicted three men on charges of trafficking in 2 kilograms of heroin that had been chemically altered into a vinyl-like slab and disguised as part of a suitcase. The indictments, announced Friday by the US attorney's office, name Freddy Alonso Osorio, 45, of Pawtucket, Jaime Humberto Restrepo-Mejia, 34, of Central Falls, and Willington Rodriguez-Forero, 29, of New York. The men were arrested last month at a gas station in Pawtucket as Rodriguez-Forero allegedly tried to deliver the heroin-lined suitcase to the other two men. Federal agents believe...

Border troops in Tajikistan say they have clashed with a gang of heroin traffickers attempting to smuggle drugs into the country from neighboring Afghanistan. The State National Security Committee's press office said Thursday that one of the traffickers was wounded in the battle and that the gang managed to escape back into Afghanistan. Officials say more than 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of heroin and 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cocaine were found at the site of the clash. The incident took place Sunday, but officials in Tajikistan typically publicize such events several...

ST. LOUIS - With heroin becoming cheaper than a six-pack of beer and as easy to obtain as pot, police and prosecutors are turning to more aggressive tactics against the drug, dusting off little-used laws to seek murder charges against suspected dealers and provide for longer prison sentences. Angry suburban parents are joining the effort, too. They have organized antidrug rallies and founded organizations to spread the word about heroin in affluent areas where it is usually considered a distant, unlikely threat.

RUTLAND, Vt. -- A couple described as the heroin wholesalers of Rutland and accused of using threats of death to keep their dealers in line are being held on a combined $1.75 million bail. Victor Ortega, 25, and Jacqueline Santos, 26, both pleaded not guilty to three felony drug charges Friday in Vermont District Court. The couple, who have ties to the Springfield, Mass., area, allegedly supplied others with bags of heroin and collected the money when it was sold. Police say Ortega and Santos had operated a large-scale drug distribution network from a...

Vermont police said they have broken up a drug ring with the arrest of a 25-year-old New York man on heroin-trafficking and drug-conspiracy charges. Eugene McNair of Brooklyn pleaded not guilty Friday following his arrest in South Burlington on Thursday. He was being held on $50,000 bail. According to WCAX-TV, documents allege that McNair and his associates were selling thousands of bags of heroin in the Burlington area.

A leader of an international heroin smuggling ring that ran large amounts of drugs from Ghana through Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia is facing at least 10 years in prison. Sixty-two-year-old Edward Macauley was arrested in his home country of Ghana last year and extradited to Virginia to face federal charges. He pleaded guilty in January and is being sentenced at U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Friday. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years. Prosecutors are seeking 14 years.

LITTLE GIRLS need role models. So do grown women. Instead, they get characters like Katniss Everdeen. Katniss, if you haven't heard, is the bow-and-arrow-wielding teenage heroine of the film "The Hunger Games," based on a best-selling young-adult trilogy that is deeply adored by teenage girls and women substantially older. In cultural terms, it's the successor to the "Twilight" series of vampire romance books. By most accounts, Katniss is the opposite of Bella, the protagonist of "Twilight.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Police investigating house break Police are looking for a suspect who allegedly broke into a Peal Street home while the resident was there. According to police, the resident said she was at home on spring break at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 13 when she heard a loud crash downstairs. The victim went to investigate and discovered a man walking down the hallway toward her. The man was described as a white male in his 40s, he...

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Attempted boat break-ins lead to arrest Two teens were arrested at 1:35 a.m. on March 4 for allegedly attempting to break into boats at Bay Point Marina. A security guard at the establishment called police early in the morning after he allegedly saw two male suspects hiding behind boats. When officers arrived, they chased the boys towards Curtis Ave and onto Washington Street, where...

After 36 days, going on 37, without heroin, Lindsay Lanese can still smell the drug on her hands, as the temptation to relapse begs her to give in. For nine years, opiate painkillers and then heroin controlled every aspect of her life: from how she could get the money for her next fix, from whom she would buy it and, most importantly, how she would deceive the people she knew — including herself — into believing the addiction wasn't real....

Deep down in a brick and concrete basement in Jamaica Plain, the three members of the Devil Music Ensemble whittle away at pieces of music that swerve in mood from warlike to courtly to comical. Brendon Wood plays plucky notes on an electric guitar while Tim Nylander clip-clops on woodblocks. Meanwhile, Jonah Rapino bows a rubbery-sounding two-stringed violin - the traditional Chinese erhu. As they play, a smoky black-and-white film flickers on one wall, where an old warlord in royal dress inspects frightened lineups of women...

Vermont police said they have broken up a drug ring with the arrest of a 25-year-old New York man on heroin-trafficking and drug-conspiracy charges. Eugene McNair of Brooklyn pleaded not guilty Friday following his arrest in South Burlington on Thursday. He was being held on $50,000 bail. According to WCAX-TV, documents allege that McNair and his associates were selling thousands of bags of heroin in the Burlington area.

VENTURA, Calif. — The man dubbed Mexico’s “King of Heroin,’’ who was pocketing up to $260,000 a week in California drug sales, pleaded guilty yesterday in a Ventura County courtroom to conspiring to sell narcotics. Jose Antonio Medina Arreguin, also known as Don Pepe, faces up to 24 years in prison when he’s sentenced April 13, prosecutor David Russell said. When Arreguin was arrested last year, investigators said the 36-year-old resident of Apatzingan, Mexico, was the leader of an elaborate, multimillion-dollar smuggling operation that once moved an estimated 440 pounds...

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Scituate man summonsed on heroin charges after OD A man will be summonsed to court on possession of heroin charges after police responded to a call of an overdose on Thursday, Feb. 16. The call came in at 9:51 a.m. on Colonial Way. The suspect was transported by ambulance to an area hospital. Evidence of heroin use was collected at the scene. As a result, Stephen J. James, 28, from Scituate was charged with possession of heroin, subsequent offense.

Authorities say an Ohio mother has been arrested on charges accusing her of injecting her teenage children with heroin before sending them to school. The Hocking County Sheriff's Office says 35-five-year-old Shantel Parker, of Laurelville, was arrested Friday at Ohio State University hospital on warrants charging her with two counts each of felonious assault, corrupting another with drugs and endangering children. Investigators say Parker has been providing heroin and other drugs to her children, ages 14 and 16, for several months.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Scituate man summonsed on heroin charges after OD A man will be summonsed to court on possession of heroin charges after police responded to a call of an overdose on Thursday, Feb. 16. The call came in at 9:51 a.m. on Colonial Way. The suspect was transported by ambulance to an area hospital. Evidence of heroin use was collected at the scene. As a result, Stephen J. James, 28, from Scituate was charged with possession of heroin, subsequent offense.