Andres Lopez Elorez, a Colombian national, was sentenced to six years in prison. Several of the puppies have since found new homes.
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Fourteen years ago, the police in Colombia stormed a makeshift veterinary clinic at a farm in Medellín, seizing 17 bags of liquid heroin and rescuing a pack of purebred puppies who were in the process of being stuffed with the drug.
On Thursday, in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, Andres Lopez Elorez, a Colombian national with veterinary training, was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to import the heroin, stitched into the puppies’ stomachs.
The case was another reminder of the lengths drug traffickers will go to in order to transport the illicit product across borders.
Although this is not the first case of a trafficker using puppies as drug mules, it seemed fitting that two floors above the courtroom where Mr. Elorez was sentenced, jurors were deliberating the fate of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug kingpin known as El Chapo, who has gained notoriety for his novel smuggling techniques. Testimony from Mr. Guzman’s trial has detailed his systems of transporting drugs on sea vessels, in the bedding of trucks and even hidden in cans of chili peppers.
