Colombian President’s Plane Held After Heroin Discovered Samper, With Anti-Drug Speech In Hand, Claims ‘Dirtying’ Setup

Drug-sniffing dogs found nearly 9 pounds of heroin hidden on the jet President Ernesto Samper was to fly to New York to make an anti-drug speech. His government called it a setup.

An anonymous caller told air force officials on Friday that an unspecified drug was on the president’s plane, air force commander Gen. Hector Hernan Gil Nieto told reporters.

Fourteen packets of heroin were found behind paneling in the Boeing 707’s forward luggage compartment and in the cockpit radio well Friday night, he said. The plane is maintained and guarded by the air force.

At a news conference Saturday, Samper called the incident “base” and said whoever was responsible knew “he was dirtying the face of Colombia.”

Justice Minister Carlos Medellin said, “There is no question someone is trying to throw mud on the president.”

Investigators held the president’s plane in Bogota and Samper left three hours late on an Avianca commercial jet.

Samper, whose 1994 election campaign was financed by $6 million from druglords, is to propose a global anti-narcotics strategy to the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.

Samper claims he was unaware of the drug cash; a highly partisan Colombian Congress cleared him of drug corruption charges in June.

However, the State Department stripped Samper of his U.S. tourist visa in July. He is traveling to New York on a diplomatic visa.

U.S. officials say they have no plans to meet with Samper, although they will meet several of his Cabinet ministers.

During his U.N. address, Samper is expected to call for establishment of an international tribunal to judge drug traffickers. He already has proposed domestic legislation to more than double jail sentences for traffickers to 30 years and to make it easier to seize their assets.

Maria Jimena Duzan, a respected columnist for El Espectador newspaper, said the idea the president would carry heroin in his plane was “absurd.”

“This was a plot by his enemies, and he has plenty of them,” she said.

Duzan pointed to political opponents, or drug traffickers who fear Samper might give in to U.S. demands that Colombia re-establish extradition, which has been constitutionally barred since 1991.

Many Colombians believe the United States is involved in subterfuge to force Samper’s resignation and would not be surprised by a U.S. link to the heroin discovery.

Duzan suggested it could be “an international plot” by the CIA or the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “But I don’t really believe that,” she said.

U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette said through a spokesman that any suggestions the United States might be involved were “absolutely untrue.”

Medellin said that if drug traffickers did plant the heroin on Samper’s plane, it proves they are being hurt by government efforts to stem the flow of narcotics out of Colombia.

“If criminal organizations are trying to damage the image of the government, of the president and Colombia, that means that yes, they are suffering blows,” he said at the news conference.

The national police director, Gen. Jose Serrano, said it was possible a few members of the air force were trying to smuggle the heroin to New York: “There is very much a boom in heroin right now.”

More than 80 percent of the cocaine and a rapidly growing amount of heroin on the U.S. market are processed in Colombia.

Cocaine and heroin are routinely confiscated by Colombian police in hidden compartments of commercial airplanes and in passengers’ luggage. Cocaine also has been found in Colombian air force planes departing the country.