This map shows how close Fair Lawn drug lab. and the Clifton bust are.
A lab would have been needed to process the liquid heroin.
Alleged Drug Smugglers Busted in N.J.
By Associated Press
July 16, 2004, 7:42 PM EDT
CLIFTON, N.J. -- Roses are red. And sometimes they attract the boys
in blue.
Police said they uncovered a ring of heroin smugglers who saturated
cardboard flower boxes with $1 million
worth of a liquid form of the drug.
After flying the rose-packed boxes into Kennedy International Airport,
the smuggler would have extra
cted the heroin from the cardboard and sold it, authorities said.
"How suspicious are you going to be of boxed flowers?" police Detective Sgt. Patrick Ciser said Thursday.
Two New Jersey men from Colombia, Juan Cortez Arias and John Rivera,
were arrested Tuesday and charged with drug offenses. They were being
held without bail, and federal authorities were still investigating.