NY vet accused of smuggling heroin in puppies arrested

Andres Lopez Elorez was arraigned in a federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday on an indictment of conspiring to import and distribute heroin into the United States, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of NY said.

Elorza, who also goes by Elorez, is accused of conspiring to smuggle heroin into the country by surgically implanting packets of liquid heroin into the bellies of puppies, who were then used as animal couriers, prosecutors said.

US Marshals were spotted escorting the vet to a black auto after he arrived at JFK Airport in NY in a green hoodie that covered his handcuffs.

Puppies found after DEA agents arrested 21 people in Colombia charged with smuggling heroin into the United States, the agency announced February 1, 2006.

"Dogs are mans" best friend and, as the defendant is about to learn, we are drug dealers' worst enemy'.

"Elorza is not only a drug trafficker, he also betrayed a veterinarian's pledge to prevent animal suffering,"Richard Donoghue, for the prosecution, said".

It is believed that the dogs were sent on commercial flights to New York City, where the drugs were cut out of them, authorities said. One Rottweiler was adopted by the Colombian National Police and later became a drug-detection dog, while a Bassett Hound puppy became a pet for another officer, the New York Times reported.

"Over time, drug organisations' unquenchable thirst for profit leads them to do unthinkable crimes like using innocent puppies for drug concealment", the head of the DEA's NY division, James Hunt, said.

He was eventually caught in 2015, living in the town of Santa Comba in northwestern Spain.

If he is convicted, he faces up to life behind bars.

A Colombian veterinarian is accused of implanting heroin in puppies to smuggle drugs into the United States.

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